m' 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGELES 


TALKS 


LffiBOR+TROUBLES. 


REV.  C.  O.  BROWN. 


CHICAGO : 
F.  H.  Revell,  148  AND  150  Madison  Street, 

PuSlisher  of  Evangelical  Literature. 


COFTBiaHT,  1886,  BT  F.  H.  BeVELL. 


PREFACE. 


The  following  Talks  were  delivered  to  an 
audience  composed  largely  of  workingmen,  one 
each  week,  last  Spring,  prior  to  the  Anarchist 
outbreak  in  Chicago.  The  series  had  been 
sometime  in  contemplation,  and  preparation 
had  been  partly  made  before  the  recent  indus- 
trial disturbances  began.  Those  disturbances 
therefore  were  not  the  cause,  though  they 
hastened  somewhat  the  delivery  of  the  TA.LKS. 
They  were  printed  week  by  week  in  the  Du- 
buque Times  as  they  were  delivered.  The 
public  interest  which  they  aroused,  indicated 
by  editorial  comment,  newspaper  extracts  and 
communications  addressed  to  the  author ;  the 
present  great  importance  of  the  theme,  and  the 
request  of  prominent  persons  who  heard  the 
Talks,  constitute  my  apology  for  consenting 
to  the  publication. 

CHAS.   O.   BROWN. 


Dubuque,  July,  1886. 


145895'1 


CDNTENTS. 


I.  The  Danger. 

II.  The  Laborer's  Grievance. 

III.  The  Laborer's  Foe. 

IV.  The  Laborer's  Fallacy. 
V.  The  Laborer's  Hope. 

VI,  Mind  and  Muscle — Co-Laborers. 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE   DANGER. 

Industrial  commotions  and  other  signs  of 
the  times  all  point  to  some  social  reformation. 
If  we  are  wise  in  meeting  the  question  it  need 
not  be  along  the  track  of  fire  and  destruction 
to  a  goal  where  all  rights  shall  be  overthrown 
as  the  wild  fanatics  of  communism  desire.  The 
result  may  be  reached  through  pain  and  disas- 
ter, even  as  the  overthrow  of  slavery  was  ac- 
complished, only  by  a  bloody  war.  But  the 
results  when  reached  will  not  be  a  pandemo- 
nium, where  murderers  and  cut  throats  shall 
rule,  and  where  they  who  have  succeeded  in 
life  shall  be  the  only  criminals.  The  new  ad- 
justment, if  one  is  to  be  made,  will  be  toward 
greater  righteousness,  not  toward  lawlessness; 
toward  peace,  not  toward  anarchy;  toward 
brotherhood,  not  toward  hatred.  It  will  bring 
the  world  to  a  new  understanding  of  the  heart 
ache  and  scrimping  want  of  millions  who  are 
willingly  bearing  its  burdens,  and  it  will  find 
some   way   of    applying    the    world's   surplus 


6  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

wealth  to  feeding  the  hungry  and  clothing  the 
naked.  It  will  bring  the  laboring  man  to  a 
better  understanding  of  the  fact  that  all  great 
affairs  require  leadership,  and  authority;  and 
it  will  inspire  a  new  sense  of  respect  and  sym- 
pathy on  both  sides.  The  employer  has  his 
burdens  as  well  as  the  employe.  Any  just  re- 
form will  recognize  the  fact  that  these  two 
classes  must  always  exist,  and  it  will  not  seek 
to  embitter  one  against  the  other;  but  it  will 
seek  for  some  common  ground  where  each 
may  have  a  better  understanding  with  the 
other. 

The  time  has  fully  come  when  such  questions 
must  be  discussed.  We  shall  only  injure  our- 
selves by  seeking  to  avoid  them.  They  who 
would  avoid  the  trouble  and  annoyance  of  such 
matters,  are  only  imitating  the  wisdom  of  the 
ostrich  who  sticks  her  head  in  the  sand  and 
fancies  that  she  is  hidden  from  danger. 

Numerous  indications  tell  us  that  whatever 
may  be  our  personal  opinions,  the  time  has 
come  when  discussion  can  no  longer  be  de- 
layed. Our  legislators  see  it  and  are  making 
haste  to  introduce  bills  in  state  and  national 
legislatures  to  remedy  the  evils  of  which  the 
laboring  classes  complain.  Some  of  these  bills 
are  extremely  crude  and  imperfect,  but  they 


THE  DANGER.  7 

show  the  tendency  of  the  times  none  the  less. 
They  show  that  the  need  of  reform  is  felt  and 
conceded  by  our  legislators.  They  show,  too, 
that  the  demand  of  laboring  men  for  some 
change  is  a  just  demand.  It  is  not  for  me  to 
point  out  how  far  these  demands  are  just  and 
where  they  are  not.  But  that  something  is  re- 
quired becomes  evident  when  the  demand  is 
so  universal  and  the  attempt  to  satisfy  it  is  so 
general. 

Another  sign  is  significant.  The  great  cap- 
italists of  the  country,  men  who  control  a  net- 
work of  railroads,  which  affect  the  commerce 
of  the  entire  nation,  are  already  acknowledg- 
ing the  power  of  the  laboring  man,  in  a  way 
which  would  have  astonished  himself  ten  years 
ago.  It  is  not  so  long  since  Wm.  H.  Vander- 
bilt  dismissed  a  reference  to  the  will  of  the 
people  with  a  profane  sneer  which  showed  his 
utter  contempt  of  the  peoples'  rights.  One 
whose  power  in  the  railroad  world  is  only  sec- 
ond to  that  of  Vanderbilt  finds  to-day  that  the 
demands  of  his  laborers  cannot  be  dismissed 
in  that  way. 

The  laborer  has  awakened  to  the  fact  that  he 
has  power  also.  Let  him  be  just  in  using  it, 
if  he  would  have  his  cause  command  respect. 
If  any   number   of  Mr.    Gould's  employes  do 


8  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

not  choose  to  work  for  him  it  is  their  right  to 
quit.  But  they  must  remember  that  other 
laboring  men  have  their  rights.  Suppose  that 
a  corporation  desires  to  employ  10,000  men, 
and  that  ten  thousand  men  are  ready  and  anx- 
ious to  work  for  that  corporation.  They  are 
poor  men  and  their  families  need  the  bread 
that  they  can  thus  earn.  Suppose,  however, 
that  several  capitalists  should  employ  a  suffi- 
cient force  of  men  to  keep  these  10,000  men, 
who  want  to  work,  out  of  employment  and 
should  actually  do  so?  Wouldn't  the  laboring 
men  all  over  the  country  cry  out  against  the 
injustice  of  such  conduct?  Wouldn't  they  say 
this  was  another  evidence  of  the  grinding  op- 
pression of  the  capitalist  against  the  laborer? 
Yet  that  is  just  what  10,000  laborers  are  now 
doing  against  their  fellow  laborers.  That  is 
not  the  oppression  of  capital  against  labor; 
but  of  one  set  of  laborers  against  their  broth- 
ers. The  laboring  men  of  this  country  cannot 
afford  to  oppress  each  other,  just  at  the  time 
when  they  are  demanding  a  reformation  of  the 
oppressions  of  capital  and  corporations.  There 
is  a  spirit  of  justice  in  this  country  which  will 
in  the  long  run  respond  to  any  rightful  demand 
of  the  laboring  man.  But  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  the  spirit  of  justice  loves  one  labor- 


THE  DANGER.  9 

ing  man  as  well  as  another,  and  one  body  of 
laboring  men  as  well  as  another.  And  the 
spirit  of  justice  will  see  to  it  in  the  long  run 
that  no  body  of  men  shall  be  permitted  to  keep 
otheis  from  laboring,  while  their  families  are 
suffering  for  bread. 

Another  sign  of  the  times  is  significant.  No 
book  of  the  present  century,  except  Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin,  has  sold  like  Henry  George's 
Progress  and  Poverty.  In  less  than  three  years, 
according  to  Mr.  Mallock,  it  passed  through 
more  than  an  hundred  editions  here  in  Ameri- 
ca, Since  then  its  sale  in  England  and  on  the 
Continent  has  been  quite  as  wonderful.  This 
is  not  the  place  where  I  shall  discuss  Mr. 
George's  views.  I  only  mention  the  significant 
fact  and  say  that  while  he  is  a  most  intelligent 
gentleman,  and  at  heart  a  friend  of  the  labor- 
ing man,  his  views  are  revolutionary  and  ex- 
treme. They  propose  an  entire  change  in  the 
relations  of  capital  and  labor,  and  a  revolution 
in  the  ownership  of  real  estate.  It  matters  not 
that  these  views  are  extreme;  it  matters  not 
that  they  seem  to  many  utterly  unreasonable; 
they  are  being  read  as  a  new  social  gospel  by 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  people  and  they  are 
affecting  the  views  of  millions.  You  will  find 
the   book   in   laborer's    cottages,    where   new 


10     TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

books  rarely  go;  you  will  hear  its  doctrines 
preached  in  laboring  men's  clubs  throughout 
this  country,  in  England  and  France  and  Ger- 
many. But  further,  they  have  affected  also 
men  of  learning.  In  England  and  Scotland 
learned  bodies  of  college  professors  have  dis- 
cussed them,  and  in  some  instances  accepted 
their  teachings.  If  we  think  that  these  facts 
are  not  significant  it  may  be  well  for  us  to  re- 
member the  influence  that  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin 
exerted  in  the  abolition  of  slavery. 

You  will  not  understand  me  as  advocating 
Mr.  George's  ideas.  I  am  only  affirming  that 
they  can  no  longer  be  ignored  by  those  who 
would  avert  some  such  revolution  as  they  ad- 
vocate. 

These  are  matters  which  are  of  vital  impor- 
tance to  the  whole  land  and  to  every  hearth- 
stone in  it.  We  must  no  longer  shrink  from 
looking  at  the  facts.  We  have  too  long  been 
silent  on  these  matters.  Too  long  the  blatant 
socialists,  like  those  who  address  the  crowds 
who  flock  to  hear  them  in  Chicago,  have  been 
permitted  to  monopolize  the  discussion  of  these 
themes.  They  have  posed  as  the  laboring 
man's  friend.  They  have  abused  the  churches 
until  many  believe  that  the  churches  are  some- 
how the  enemy  of  the  laboring   man.     They 


THE  DANGER.  11 

have  abused  everything  in  the  name  of  order, 
and  openly  declared  their  intention  to  destroy 
everything  connected  with  the  present  ordering 
of  society.  Do  we  realize  that  every  Sabbath 
day,  while  we  enjoy  the  quiet  of  our  homes 
and  the  worship  of  our  sanctuaries,  there  are 
many  mouthing  orators  in  different  cities  tell- 
ing audiences  aggregating  many  thousands 
that  the  time  has  come  for  the  poor  to  rise 
against  the  rich,  the  laborer  against  the  capital- 
ist; that  the  time  has  come  for  the  torch  and 
dynamite — for  tearing  down  and  dividing  up! 
Such  mouthings  would  be  entirely  harmless 
except  to  those  who  utter  them,  were  it  not 
that  in  every  great  city,  and  in  a  growing  de- 
gree throughout  the  land,  there  is  an  impres- 
sion that  there  are  real  wrongs  which  need  to 
be  righted.  There  is  a  feeling  that  in  some 
way  in  this  free  land  every  honest  man  who  is 
willing  to  toil  from  sunrise  to  sunset,  should  be 
able  to  earn  at  least  a  trifle  more  than  a  bare 
subsistence  for  himself  and  his  family. 

Some  time  ago  I  clipped  the  following  item 
from  one  of  the  Chicago  papers.  It  was 
headed: 

HEATHENISM   IN   CHICAGO. 

"  How  can  a  man  who  earns  $  i  a  day  pay 
$6  a  month   rent,  clothe,  feed  and  care  for  a 


12     -      TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

sick  wife  and  six  children?  We  hate  to  see  a 
horse  pull  until  he  falls  under  the  whip.  What 
about  a  man  tugging  at  such  a  load,  year  in 
and  year  out,  with  no  one  to  lend  a  hand?  But 
the  women — the  curse  always  falls  most  heavily 
upon  them.  On  the  south  side  the  other  day 
a  woman  was  found  on  the  floor  beside  her 
sewing  machine  in  a  fainting  fit.  She  had  been 
trying  to  finish  a  job  of  26  cloaks,  for  the  mak- 
ing of  which  she  was  to  receive  $26 — $1  a 
cloak!  A  poor  neighbor  helped  to  bring  her 
to,  and  got  her  on  the  bed,  and  then  finished 
the  cloaks  for  her.  Did  the  sick  woman  get 
the  $26,  to  pay  her  rent  and  buy  food,  for  lack 
of  which  her  strength  had  given  way?  Not 
one  cent  of  it.  The  firm  refused  to  pay  her 
anything  because  the  finishing  was  not  done 
by  herself.  'The  Lord  have  mercy  upon  them,' 
said  the  visitor,  'I  never  saw  a  human  being  so 
full  of  bitterness  as  was  that  poor  sewing  wom- 
an.' At  last  she  gave  a  great  lurch  of  soul, 
to  get  out  of  the  trough  of  the  sea,  and  keep 
her  little  craft  from  going  straight  to  the  bot- 
tom. 'Well,'  she  gasped,  'God  lives,  and  He 
is  just — and  He  cares — even  for  me.'  " 

There  are  hundreds  of  thousands  in  this 
country  who  are  willing  to  work,  and  who  do 
work  hard,  year's  end  to  year's  end,  who  do 
not  and  cannot  succeed  in  laying  up  a  dollar. 
In  such  a  city  as  Chicago  there  are  many  thou- 
sands of  such.  They  make  no  complaint.  They 
silently  endure  their  sufferings.     But  as  they 


THE  DANGER.  13 

see  other  men  enjoying  fortunes  which  never 
cost  them  a  day's  honest  toil — fortunes  which 
have  been  won  by  speculative  gambling  in  an 
hour,  they  have  a  sense  of  wrong  and  a  feeling 
that  things  need  re-adjustment.  Their  sense 
of  wrong  and  injury  is  not  lessened  when,  as 
is  often  the  case,  the  very  speculation  which 
makes  one  man  worth  a  million  or  ten  million 
dollars — compels  the  poor  man  who  gets  a  dol- 
lar and  a  half  a  day  to  pay  ten  or  twenty  cents 
more  for  every  sack  of  flour  he  buys.  These 
people,  thousands  of  them,  have  no  sympathy 
with  communism;  they  would  shrink  with  hor- 
ror from  any  contact  with  the  vile  wretches 
who  talk  about  murdering  every  rich  man,  and 
applying  the  torch;  but  it  is  that  sense  of 
wrong  in  the  hearts  of  honest  laboring  men 
which  gives  to  socialism  or  communism  all  of 
the  real  power  which  it  has  in  this  country  to- 
day. 

The  men  who  make  the  noise  at  socialistic 
meetings  are  mostly  ruffians  and  blatherskites, 
who  are  not  earning  now,  and  never  have 
earned,  an  honest  day's  living.  They  have  lived 
by  their  wits,  and  they  want  a  better  living 
than  they  have  been  able  to  get  that  way. 
They  want  to  divide  what  they  never  helped  to 
earn.     The  blatant  utterances  of   these    men 


14     TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

would  never  accomplish  anything  to  be  feared 
by  the  country  at  large  if  there  were  not  an- 
other class  whose  alliance  they  seek,  and  who 
feel  that  they  are  justly  earning  more  of  the 
world's  wealth  than  they  get.  There  is  a  large 
class  of  persons  who  feel  that,  under  the  present 
order  of  things,  they  have  a  great  grievance. 
I  am  not  now  saying  whether  they  are  right  or 
wrong;  I  am  speaking  of  the  facts.  It  is  this 
strong  undercurrent  of  feeling,  in  bosoms  of 
honest  toilers,  which  constitutes  the  real  strength 
of  socialism  in  this  country  to-day.  Socialisic 
orators,  as  a  rule,  have  no  genuine  grievance, 
although  they  prate  so  much.  A  man  who  has 
earned  nothing  has  no  right  to  complain  be- 
cause he  gets  little.  But  his  hope  lies  in  being 
able  to  kindle  this  feeling  of  grievance  which 
thousands  of  honest  toilers  carry  in  their  bo- 
soms, into  a  flame  of  hatred  against  capital, 
and  of  anarchy  against,  the  government.  He 
appeals,  therefore,  to  that  feeling.  He  pre- 
tends to  be  the  friend  of  the  laboring  man.  He 
commisserates  his  sufferings;  he  strives  by  ev- 
ery means  to  create  the  impression  that  the 
laborer  earns  everything,  and  that  capital  gets 
the  most  of  it.  He  sets  forth  what  he  claims 
to  be  the  greed,  the  avarice,  the  selfishness, 
the  heartlessness  of  the  proud  capitalist,  rolling 


THE  DANGER.  15 

in  luxury,  and  the  misery  of  the  laborer,  who 
has  earned  his  wealth  for  him,  living  on  a  crust, 
and  his  children  clothed  in  rags. 

Thus,  by  every  means,  he  seeks  to  inflame 
the  passions  of  the  honest  laborer,  and  kindle 
his  hatred  not  only  against  his  employer,  but 
against  the  whole  order  of  things  which  has  per- 
mitted one  to  be  rich  while  the  other  is  poor. 

And,  my  friends,  the  danger  of  socialism  lies 
just  there.  The  danger  is  that  its  long-contin- 
ued and  frequent  appeals  may  secure  the  alli- 
ance of,  thousands  who  have  the  feeling  that  I 
speak  of,  but  who,  as  yet,  would  abhor  the 
thought  of  being  socialists.  Socialism  has  not 
yet  secured  the  alliance  of  any  great  propor- 
tion of  the  laboring  classes.  The  laboring 
classes  constitute  the  bulk  of  our  population, 
and  it  will  be  an  unhappy  day  for  this  country 
when  any  great  numbers  of  them  become 
"fire  and  blood"  socialists.  But  many  things 
in  these  days  are  driving  and  drawing  them  that 
way.  Everything  which  has  a  tendency  to  in- 
crease what  many  laboring  men  regard  as  the 
grievance  of  their  class  helps  in  that  direction. 
Everything  which  tends  to  class  separation  and 
to  alienation  of  employer  and  employe;  every- 
thing which  breeds  a  feeling  of  discontent  and 
hatred  in  the  hearts  of  the  laborers  of  this  coun- 


16  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

try;  everything  which  deepens  the  feehng  that 
society  at  large  is  wilhng  to  enjoy  his  toil  with- 
out rendering  a  fair  recompense;  everything 
which  leads  him  to  think  that  his  cause  is  just, 
and  that  none  are  willing  to  listen  to  him — ev- 
ery such  thing  drives  him  a  step  further  in  the 
direction  whither  the  socialist  is  trying  to  draw 
him. 

It  is  time  for  society  at  large  to  recognize 
these  facts,  and  adjust  itself  to  them.  The 
people  should  recognize  the  fact  that  there  is  a 
danger  here  which  can  be  averted;  not  a  dan- 
ger that  the  great  proportion  of  the  laboring 
classes  will  ever  become  socialists.  No!  We 
have  too  much  confidence  in  the  intelligent  self- 
respect  of  American  laborers  for  that.  But 
there  is  danger  that  enough  of  them  may  be 
infected  to  make  serious  trouble  for  this  land. 
What  if  every  tenth  laborer  should  be  carried 
away  with  this  horrid  infection,  and  thoroughly 
filled  with  the  notion  that  the  time  has  come 
for  the  torch  and  dynamite?  Wouldn't  that 
make  trouble  enough?  With  more  than  twenty 
thousand  armed  socialists  in  the  city  of  Chicago; 
with  thousands  in  Cleveland,  Cincinnati,  Pitts- 
burgh, and  in  every  great  city  of  this  land,  is 
it  not  time  that  we  were  inquiring  for  some 
means  of  checking  this  growth?     We  are  not 


THE  DANGER.  17 

afraid  that  the  great  body  of  workingmen  in 
this  country  will  ever  become  socialists  of  the 
extreme  type.  But  suppose  that  one-tenth  of 
them  should  become  anarchists,  with  organiza- 
tions in  all  our  great  cities.  The  railroad  prop- 
erty ruined  at  Pittsburgh  in  1877,  the  burnt 
court-house  at  Cincinnati,  and  the  smouldering 
foundries  of  Cleveland,  are  only  incidents  to 
what  might  then  transpire. 

The  country  at  large  would  be  horrified  to 
see,  in  plain  English,  the  utterances  which  are 
daily  circulated  by  socialistic  journals  among 
the  laborers  of  our  great  cities.  Often  these 
papers  are  printed  in  a  foreign  tongue,  as 
that  v/hich  circulates  among  the  Bohemians  of 
the  city  of  Cleveland.  In  a  recent  Century 
article,  Washington  Gladden  advocates  the  plan 
of  translating  and  circulating  these  precious 
documents  throughout  the  country,  that  the 
people  at  large  may  understand  what  is  being 
said,  and  may  be  properly  aroused. 

But  in  these  days  there  are  other  tokens  than 
the  noisy  threats  and  appeals  of  the  socialists. 
The  laboring  men  of  this  land  have  awakened 
to  the  power  of  organization.  They  have  be- 
gun to  assert  where  recently  they  only  com- 
plained, or  were  silent.  When  the  traffic  of  a 
great  railway  system,  controlled  by  one  of  the 


18     TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

railway  kings  of  the  country,  can  be  stopped 
in  a  single  day,  and  all  of  the  dependent  com- 
merce greatly  deranged  or  paralyzed,  it  is  cer- 
tain that  some  power  is  at  work  which  can  no 
longer  be  ignored,  however  much  some  would 
like  to  ignore  it.  A  new  power,  which  dares 
to  measure  swords  with  a  railway  millionaire 
like  Jay  Gould,  has  suddenly  sprung  up.  We 
may  regret  the  formation  of  any  class  into  a 
society,  by  itself,  as  tending  to  still  further 
broaden  the  breach  already  existing;  we  may 
fear  that  the  organization  of  one  class  will  lead 
to  another,  and  that  between  these  classes  rival- 
ries and  hatreds  will  spring  up;  we  may  fear 
that  when  we  have  organized  classes  we  shall 
have  something  like  caste,  with  all  of  its  hate- 
ful brood;  or  we  may  fear  what  one  writer  has 
recently  called  "the  battle  of  classes  through 
secret  organizations;"  but  all  of  our  fears  will 
not  change  the  facts.  One  large  class  organ- 
ization is  already  in  the  field.  It  is  growing. 
It  declares  its  purpose  to  continue  to  grow. 
Moreover,  it  has  already  made  its  power  felt 
in  various  parts  of  the  country.  And  all  of 
this,  we  are  told,  is  only  the  beginning. 

Whatever  we  may  wish  were  the  case,  and 
however  much  many  may  regret  the  existence 
of  such  powerful  organizations,  they  are  already 


THE  DANGER.  19 

in  the  field.  Cool-headed  men,  who  are  not 
carried  away  by  prejudices  or  by  fears,  con- 
cede that  henceforth,  and  with  increasing  de- 
gree, the  demands  of  the  laboring  classes  must 
be  encountered  in  organized  form. 

How  are  the  facts  to  be  met?  It  will  not  do 
even  those  who  have  the  disposition  any  good 
to  denounce.  Denunciation  never  accom- 
plishes much;  and,  in  the  present  attitude  of 
things,  it  would  be  simply  idiotic,  if  not  sui- 
cidal. The  socialists  would  rejoice  in  nothing 
so  much.  How  it  would  please  them  to  have 
the  pulpit  and  press  join  in  a  general  tirade  of 
abuse,  and  so  drive  the  laborers  of  this  coun- 
try into  their  ranks. 

There  is  a  better  course.  Let  it  be  seen  that 
society  at  large  is  the  laboring  man's  friend. 
Let  us  not  leave  the  organized  enemies  of  so- 
ciety and  government  to  pose  as  the  only  friends 
of  the  laborer.  Let  society  at  large  show  a 
disposition  to  hear  his  cause  fairly  stated;  to 
listen  to  his  complaints,  if  he  has  any  to  make, 
and  to  remedy  the  difficulty,  if  any  remedy  can 
be  found.  Let  the  churches  show,  in  more 
practical  ways,  that  they  are  the  friends  of  the 
laboring  classes,  and  that  the  laboring  man  in 
plain  garb  is  just  as  welcome  as  his  employer 
who  wears  broadcloth;   let  them  show  that  the 


20     TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

wants  and  woes  of  the  toiling  millions  can  find 
just  and  fearless  expression  in  every  pulpit  in 
the  land.  Such  an  utterance  from  the  pulpits 
of  this  country,  just  at  this  time,  would  go  a 
long  way  toward  solving  the  existing  difficul- 
ties, especially  if  it  were  seen  to  be  supported 
by  the  pews.  It  is  asserted  that  the  fine  cush- 
ions of  our  churches  were  never  meant  for  the 
poor,  and  so  the  masses  are  being  prejudiced 
against  our  churches.  Multitudes  stay  away 
from  them,  and,  deserting  the  teachings  of  the 
gospel,  they  are  the  more  open  to  the  appeals 
of  socialism.  It  would  go  far  toward  mutual 
understanding,  and  toward  a  better  adjustment, 
if  the  pulpit  and  pew  should  conspire  to  make 
the  laboring  man  welcome,  and  to  give  a  fair 
hearing  to  his  case.  I  fully  believe,  my  friends, 
that  such  an  attitude  at  this  time  would  tend  to 
the  mutual  benefit  of  the  laborer  and  the  em- 
ployer; I  believe  that  it  would  tend  toward  that 
charity  of  judgment  and  that  brotherhood  of 
man  which  the  gospel  commends;  I  believe 
that  nothing  would  go  so  far  toward  restoring 
the  laboring  masses  to  the  church  which  they 
have  deserted;  and  I  believe,  therefore,  that 
no  duty  of  the  hour  could  be  more  sacred,  or 
more  according  to  the  will  of  Him  who  worked 
in  a  carpenter-shop  at  Nazareth, 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE    LABORERS    GRIEVANCE. 

I  RECOGNIZE  at  the  outset  that  the  present 
is  a  time  of  anxiety  and  disturbance.  Labor 
troubles  oppress  the  atmosphere  as  never  be- 
fore in  the  history  of  this  country.  Fifty  thou- 
sand men,  it  is  said,  are  now  out  of  employ- 
ment, not  because  their  employers  have  turned 
them  out,  but  because  they  make  demands 
which  their  employers  are  not  willing  to  con-  ..^^ 
cede.  In  most  of  these  cases,  they  could  have 
work  to-morrow,  and  wages  which  would  make 
the  laborer  of  Italy  or  of  England  feel  that  he 
had  lived  to  see  the  day  of  true  labor  reform. 
During  a  visit  to  Chicago  last  week  I  learned 
of  one  large  class  of  skilled  laborers  who  have 
been  earning  from  $2  to  $5  a  day,  their  work 
being  paid  for  by  the  piece.  Not  one  of  them 
had  been  receiving  less  than  $2  a  day,  and  the 
better  workmen  had  been  receiving  $5  a  day 
in  that  establishment.  Yet  those  men  are  now 
out  on  a  strike  for  higher  wages.  What  would 
the  poor  Italian  laborer  think  of  $2   a  day! 


22     TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

Would  he  not  think  that  the  millenium  had 
dawned  if  his  employer  were  to  hand  him  $5 
for  a  day's  work? 

I  promised  to  state,  this  evening,  as  fairly  as 
possible,  the  laboring  man's  grievances  as  set 
forth  by  their  representative  men.  No  person 
ought  to  take  exceptions  to  a  fair  hearing.  In 
times  of  excitement,  nothing  can  tend  so  much 
to  produce  the  desired  settlement,  as  a  spirit 
of  fairness  to  hear  the  whole  matter.  When 
labor  organizations  are  already  in  the  field  and 
are  claiming  that  they  have  complaints  to  make 
in  behalf  of  the  entire  wage-earning  class,  it 
is  too  late  to  refuse  them  a  hearing.  The  true 
way  to  conciliate  is  fairness;  and  fairness  is 
willing  to  hear  both  sides.  While,  therefore, 
I  do  not  hold  myself  responsible  for  the  views 
of  such  men  as  Mr.  George,  and  others  who 
in  this  day  speak  for  the  laboring  man;  while 
I  believe  that  no  greater  calamity  could  befall 
the  laboring  men  of  this  land  than  to  have  Mr, 
George's  views  prevail;  and  while  I  purpose  in 
the  future  talks  of  this  series  to  show  that  the 
tendency  of  those  views  would  be  to  reduce 
labor  to  a  condition  worse  than  that  of  Russian 
serfdom,  I  yet  hold  that  the  laboring  classes 
have  a  right  to  be  heard.  If  they  had  been 
accorded  a  wider  hearing  years  ago,  the  pres- 


THE  LABORER'S  GRIEVANCE.  23 

ent  differences  between  them  and  capital 
would  never  have  appeared  in  the  present  war- 
like aspect.  If  the  pulpit  and  platform  gener- 
ally had  been  willing  to  discuss  these  themes 
ten  years  ago  they  would  never  have  accepted 
Mr.  George's  views  so  widely  as  they  have; 
and  especially  would  the  blatant  socialists  have 
been  without  a  hearing  among  them.  It  is 
our  own  fault,  friends,  if  we  have  permitted 
the  unreasonable  and  anarchist  element  to  ob- 
tain such  an  influence  among  laboring  men. 
No  man  shall  excel  me  in  horror  of  all  that 
goes  by  the  name  of  socialism  or  communism 
to-day.  The  man  who  talks  about  burning  the 
property  of  the  rich  or  about  murdering  his 
more  fortunate  neighbor,  is  a  vile  wretch,  too 
ignorant  to  appreciate,  or  too  wicked  to  im- 
prove, the  opportunities  which  this  free  coun- 
try offers  to  the  laboring  poor.  Such  men 
should  be  sent  back  to  the  countries  where  des- 
potism crushes  every  aspiration,  and  where  a 
titled  aristocracy  forbids  the  hope  that  a  poor 
man  may  better  his  condition  and  become  the 
owner  of  an  estate. 

The  anarchist  is  at  heart  the  worst  kind  of  a 
despot.  He  would,  on  his  own  confession,  if 
he  dared,  commit  greater  acts  of  despotism  and 
oppression  to-morrow,  than  were  ever  co'mmit- 


24  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

ted  by  Nero;  for  while  Nero  burned  one  city, 
he  would  burn  every  city.  He  has  no  appre- 
ciation for  the  freedom  to  which  he  has  come. 
Such  a  man  has  no  business  in  a  country, 
where  it  is  possible  for  a  poor  tanner  to  become 
the  greatest  commander  of  his  century,  and  for 
a  rail  splitter  to  become  the  greatest  ruler  and 
the  noblest  liberator  of  all  time. 

While,  therefore,  I  shall  at  this  time  give  a 
fair  statement  of  the  laborer's  grievances  as  I 
understand  his  claims  in  reference  to  them,  I 
will  not  be  understood  as  uttering  one  word  in 
favor  of  any  scheme  which  a  socialist  would 
approve.  I  have  but  small  confidence  in  mush- 
room schemes  of  any  kind.  I  do  not  believe 
that  any  quack  remedy  can  change  the  condi- 
tions of  society  in  an  hour,  however  desirable 
certain  changes  may  be.  He  who  would  en- 
courage the  laboring  classes  to  suppose  that 
economic  arrangements,  which  are  the  results 
of  centuries  of  growth,  can  be  changed  in  a 
day  or  a  year,  is  the  worst  foe  that  the  labor- 
ing man  has;  for  he  would  only  excite  hopes 
which  are  doomed  beforehand  to  certain  dis- 
appointment; and  he  would  be  in  danger  of 
exciting  a  revolution  which  could  only  end  in 
disaster  and  famine  for  the  laboring  classes. 

The  condition  of  laboring  men  in  this  coun- 


THE  LABORER'S  GRIEVANCE.  25 

try  is  far  superior  to  that  of  the  laborers  in  the 
old  world.  I  believe  also  that  the  condition  of 
laboring  men  in  this  country  will  be  relatively 
far  better  a  century  to  come  than  it  is  to-day. 
The  tendency  of  things  is  in  that  direction. 
Right  minded  men  of  all  classes  would  regret 
to  see  laboring  men  led  by  blatherskites  into 
rash  acts,  which  shall  set  back  the  wheels  of 
progress  and  destroy  their  own  prospects  for 
years  to  come.  That  is  why  I  want  the  com- 
munity at  large  to  talk  this  matter  over  with 
him.  Let  not  the  laborer  start  out  with  the 
belief  that  any  new  reform  can  change  his  con- 
dition from  that  of  toil  to  affluence  in  a  single 
day  Honest  fortunes  are  not  made  in  that 
way;  and  surely  honest  laborers  do  not  want 
dishonest  fortunes.  If  they  ever  get  fortunes 
they  want  them  to  come  honestly.  If  any 
change  is  to  be  made,  it  must  be  in  the  way  of 
helping  the  laboring  man  to  new  and  more  de- 
sirable conditions  of  earning  the  fortune  which 
he  seeks.  It  will  not  come  by  any  scheme 
of  riot  on  the  one  hand,  or  of  quack  legislation 
on  the  other,  which  shall  give  ever  to  him  in 
fee  simple  the  property  which  other  men  have 
earned.  The  laboring  man  of  the  future  as  of 
the  past  must  earn  a  fortune  before  he  can  en- 
joy it. 


26  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  his  privilege  to 
hope  for  and  strive  after  such  reforms  as  shall 
help  him,  by  all  lawful  means,  to  increase  his 
opportunities  and  alleviate  his  burdens.  Let 
no  man  say  that  such  reform,  though  it  must 
be  gradual,  is  impossible.  This  old  world  has 
moved  along  the  road  of  human  progress  too 
grandly  hitherto  to  halt  nov/.  Thousands  of 
years  ago  monarches  were  everything,  and  the 
masses  were  nothing.  Millions  of  men  could 
be  herded  to  fight  the  battles  of  a  king,  or  to 
pile  the  pyramid  which  should  be  his  tomb. 
The  lash  was  over  them;  they  could  only  obey. 
They  might  wail;  it  was  nothing!  They  might 
die;  there  were  other  millions  to  take  their 
place  beneath  the  burdens  and  the  lash.  But 
God  lived  then,  as  he  lives  now,  and  presently 
the  heart  of  slumbering  humanity  and  the 
sword  of  divine  justice  awoke.  Down  went 
kings,  at  whose  nod  millions  had  trembled — 
down  to  an  oblivion  so  deep  that  you  search  in 
vain  for  the  paltry  record  of  their  names;  down 
went  empires,  whose  corner-stone  was  oppres- 
sion and  whose  palaces  were  built  by  slaves; 
down  went  hoary  systems  of  abuse  before  the 
throbbing  heart  of  reform,  whose  pulses  were 
thunders  of  terror  to  tyrants,  but  a  music  of 
love  to  the  weary  and   the  oppressed;    down 


THE  LABORER'S  GRIEVANCE.  27 

went  Rome,  leaving  her  record  of  imperial 
cruelty  to  be  spelled  out  from  the  inscrip- 
tions of  a  few  crumbling  marbles;  down  went 
the  feudal  system,  about  which  men  talked  in 
their  day  as  we  talk  about  our  little  systems 
now,  and  when  it  went  down  it  left  only  a  few 
crumbling  castles  on  the  hill-tops,  to  be  covered 
by  charitable  ivy,  and  to  be  admired  by  those 
Vi'ho  dote  on  ruins;  down  went  British  slavery 
in  the  colonies;  down  went  the  colossal  system 
of  slavery  in  America.  What!  Am  I  to  be 
told  that  the  world  has,  in  any  direction, 
reached  the  limit  of  reform? — I,  who  can  re- 
member the  days  when  the  fugitive  slave  used 
to  creep  into  that  station  of  the  undei  ground 
railway  which  was  in  my  father's  garret;  I, 
who  can  remember  that,  and  have  been  per- 
mitted to  see  an  ex-slave  standing  among  his 
peers  on  the  floor  of  the  United  States  Con- 
gress? No!  Tell  that  to  the  moldering  dust 
of  men  who  submitted  to  the  tyranny  of  Nero 
or  the  persecutions  of  Diocletian;  tell  that  to 
the  musty  mummies  of  men  who  permitted 
themselves  to  be  driven  in  human  herds  to  the 
task  of  carving  sphinxes  and  piling  pyramids; 
but  do  not  tell  it  to  me,  for  I  have  had  the  honor 
of  living  in  the  days  of  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  the 
conqueror,  and  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  liberator. 


28  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

The  true  solution  of  all  existing  labor  trou- 
bles must  come  through  a  more  general  appli- 
cation of  the  law  of  human  brotherhood.  That 
is  the  gospel  law:  "We  that  are  strong  ought 
to  bear  the  infirmities  of  the  weak;"  "Bear  ye 
one  another's  burdens,  and  so  fulfil  the  law  of 
Christ."  A  more  general  acceptance  of  this 
law  of  human  brotherhood  would  tend  imme- 
diately to  the  relief  of  distress,  and  the  adjust- 
ment of  difficulties  between  capital  and  labor. 
It  is  the  lack  of  this  principle  which  is  at  the 
bottom  of  much  of  the  present  bitterness  on 
the  part  of  the  laboring  man.  It  is  not  alone 
the  present  sufferings  of  one  who  is  out  of  em- 
ployment, which  lead  to  a  feeling  of  riot  and 
revolution;  but  still  more  is  it  owing  to  the 
feeling  that  the  more  favored  portions  of  soci- 
ety are  indifferent  to  the  sufferings  or  the  im- 
provement of  the  laboring  poor.  There  is  a 
feeling  that  the  favored  portion  of  society  is  too 
willing  to  accept  the  statement  that  the  condi- 
tions of  classes  are  determined  by  fixed  laws, 
and  so  to  dismiss  all  thought  and  responsibility 
in  the  matter.  The  laboring  classes  hold  that 
the  wealthy  are  too  willing  to  accept  the  theo- 
ries of  Malthus  and  Adam  Smith,  without  ask- 
ing whether  their  theories  are  correct.  When 
Malthus  first  set  forth  his  theory  that  this  world 


THE  LABORER'S  GRIEVANCE.  29 

was  not  big  enough  for  all  whom  God  sends 
into  it;  that  there  could  not  be  food  and  cloth- 
ing enough  to  make  everybody  comfortable; 
that  there  must,  therefore,  always  be  a  degraded 
and  suffering  class,  he  was  hailed  as  the  apos- 
tle of  the  titled  nobility,  and  pensioned  by  the 
rich.  I  have  only  put  in  plain  words  his  doc- 
trine that  "population  in  a  continually  increas- 
ing degree  presses  on  the  means  of  subsist- 
ence."  Have  we  any  right  to  accept  such  a 
doctrine  as  that  with  complacency?  Ought 
there  not  to  be  a  new  and  careful  review  of  the 
facts  year  by  year  and  then  extreme  reluctance 
before  accepting  such  a  theory?  But  those  who 
speak  for  the  laboring  man  claim  that  the  Mal- 
thusian  doctrine  has  been  not  only  accepted, 
but  hailed  by  the  aristocracy  as  a  scientific 
principle  which  relieves  them  from  all  responsi- 
bility for  the  woes  and  the  wants  of  their  less 
favored  neighbors.  If  Providence  has  decreed 
that  "population  shall  press  on  the  means  of 
subsistence;"  if,  consequently,  there  must  be 
a  large  class  crying  for  bread  and  shivering  be- 
cause they  are  thinly  clad,  what's  the  use  of 
kicking  against  the  decrees  of  Providence?  My 
friends,  no  man  ever  talked  that  way  whose 
stomach  was  empty,  and  whose  body  was  shiv- 
ering for  want  of  good  clothing.      It  may  be 


30     TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

easy  for  some  who  have  a  full  wardrobe  and  a 
bursting  larder  to  talk  that  way,  but,  God 
helping  me,  I  never  will.  I  will  not  kick 
against  the  decrees  of  Providence;  but  I  will 
kick  with  all  my  might  against  the  theory  of 
Malthus.  And,  moreover,  I  will  do  all  in  my 
power,  by  voice  and  pen,  to  arouse  society 
from  the  selfish  composure  which  that  false  doc- 
trine is  responsible  for.  So  long  as  there  is,  in 
any  land,  a  large  class  of  honest  toilers  whose 
families  are  liable  to  suffer  for  bread, 
while  there  is  plenty  of  bread  in  the  land  to 
feed  all,  no  people  should  rest  content  in 
any  theory  or  any  so-called  economic  law,  but 
should  apply  themselves  earnestly  to  the  prob- 
lem whose  known  factors  are  the  open  mouths 
of  hunger,  and  whose  unknown  factor  is  how 
to  fill  them. 

There  is  a  law  older  than  political  economy 
which  was  venerable  with  the  hoar-frost  of 
centuries  before  Malthus  was  born,  which  de-' 
clares  that  man  is  his  brother's  keeper,  that  we 
ought  to  bear  one  another's  burdens.  As  long 
as  there  are  burdens  and  heartaches  and  hun- 
ger in  this  world,  no  dream  of  any  theorist  can 
supersede  that  law,  and  no  tenet  of  political 
economy  can  relieve  society  from  the  search 
after  a  better  way  which  will  help  to  lighten 


THE  LABORER'S  GRIEVANCE.  31  ■ 

the  burden  and  relieve  the  hunger.  In  a  so- 
called  "journal  of  civilization"  one  teacher  tells 
us  that  "the  saving  words  for  society  is  that 
each  shall  mind  his  own  business."  That  may 
be  a  pleasing  doctrine  for  some  who  are  well 
fed  and  who  have  goods  in  plenty  laid  up  for 
years  to  come;  but  those  who  look  around  on 
their  poverty  and  forward  to  the  poor  house, 
cannot  be  so  easily  satisfied.  The  thing  which 
more  than  any  other  is  demanded  for  the  solu- 
tionof  existing  difficulties,  is  the  sentiment  of 
human  brotherhood,  made  warm  and  effective 
by  sympathy  for  human  suffering. 

The  most  general  grievance  of  the  laboring 
man  then  is  this:  He  claims  that  he  has  burdens 
for  which  some  remedy  ought  to  be  found;  but 
he  claims  also  that  whenever  he  has  sought  to 
present  the  facts  he  has  been  met  by  the  state- 
ment that  these  matters  are  controlled  by 
economic  laws,  and  that  if  his  case  is  a  hard 
one  the  laws  of  trade  are  to  blame  and  not 
society.  His  claim  is  that  society  is  more 
ready  to  quote  a  theory  than  it  is  to  examine 
the  facts,  and  exert  itself  to  change  them.  In 
making  these  statements  I  am  only  seeking  to 
give  what  I  understand  to  be  the  laboring 
man's  position. 


32     TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

Another  element  of  his  grievance  is  the 
fact,  as  he  claims,  that  unless  some  new  factor 
is  introduced,  there  is  nothing  which  promises 
him  relief  in  the  future.  The  present  century- 
has  witnessed  such  a  revolution  by  labor-saving 
machinery  as  almost  excels  that  of  all  which 
has  gone  before  it.  Steam  and  electricity  are 
harnessed  to  machines  which  can  do  everything 
but  think.  We  used  to  say,  "everything  but 
think  and  talk,"  but  we  have  machines  ihaitcan 
talk  in  these  days.  Machines  make  our  boxes 
and  barrels — a  score  or  a  hundred,  where  man 
unaided  could  scarcely  have  made  one;  they 
turn  out  our  boots  by  the  case,  and  our  coats 
by  the  boxful;  they  draw  our  wagons  and  drive 
our  diamond-pointed  drills  through  the  heart  of 
the  mountains;  they  reap  our  harvests,  and  lay 
them  down  on  the  sea-coast  in  thousands  and 
millions  of  barrels  of  flour.  Surely  one  who, 
a  century  ago,  could  have  foreseen  all  of  this 
mighty  improvement  in  the  appliances  for  get- 
ting at  and  rendering  the  stores  of  nature  in  the 
markets  of  the  world,  would  have  been  justi- 
fied in  expecting  that  all  classes  of  society 
would  reap  the  benefits;  that  while  the  rich 
would  go  richer,  the  poor  would  at  least  ad- 
vance into  conditions  of  comparative  comfort, 
and  the  laboring   man  would  share  the  general 


THE  LABORER'S  GRIEVANCE.  33 

prosperity  in  largely-increased  pay  for  nis  toil. 
The  complaint  is  (I  say  not  how  just)  that  this 
is  not  the  case,  and  the  inference  drawn  is 
that  there  must  be  something  radically  at 
fault,  which  interferes  with  what  would  other- 
wise be  the  natural  result. 

No  living  man  would  probably  be  more  gen- 
erally accepted  than  Mr,  Henry  George  as  the 
spokesman  of  the  laboring  classes.  I  will  there- 
ifore  quote  his  own  words  (written  in  1879  and 
often  re-issued  since),  setting  forth  the  labor- 
er's grievance:  "It  is  true  that  disappointment 
has  followed  disappointment,  and  that  discov- 
ery upon  discovery,  and  invention  after  inven- 
tion, have  neither  lessened  the  toil  of  those  who 
most  need  respite  nor  brought  plenty  to  the 
poor.  *  *  »  \ye  are  coming  into  collision 
with  facts  which  there  can  be  no  mistaking. 
From  all  parts  of  the  civilized  world  come  com- 
plaints of  industrial  depression;  of  labor  con- 
demned to  involuntary  idleness;  of  capital 
massed  and  wasting;  of  pecuniary  distress 
among  business  men ;  of  want  and  suffering  and 
anxiety  among  the  working  classes.  All  the 
dull,  deadening  pain,  all  the  keen,  maddening 
anguish  that,  to  great  masses  of  men,  are  in- 
volved in  the  words  'hard  times,'  afflict  the 
world  to-day."    After  showing  that  this  state  of 


34  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

things  prevailed  in  lands  where  there  are  stand- 
ing armies,  and  where  there  are  none;  in  lands 
where  there  is  a  protective  tariff,  and  where 
there  is  free  trade;  in  countries  where  gold  is 
the  exclusive  money  standard,  in  others  where 
bimetalism  prevails,  and  in  others  where  the 
money  is  almost  exclusively  paper,  he  goes  on 
to  say:  "Where  the  conditions  to  which  mate- 
rial progress  everywhere  tends  are  most  fully 
:«*ealized — that  is  to  say,  where  population  is 
densest,  wealth  greatest  and  machinery  ■*  * 
most  highly  developed — there  we  find  the  deep- 
est poverty,  the  sharpest  struggle  for  existence 
and  the  most  enforced  idleness:"  ("Progress 
and  Poverty,"  Ch.  I,  pp.  9  and  10.) 

In  contrast  to  this,  we  are  shown  that  in 
newer  communities  the  great  differences  of  con- 
dition are  almost  removed.  None  aic  very 
rich  and  none  very  poor.  There  is  no  luxury 
and  no  destitution.  No  one  makes  an  easy  liv- 
ing; but  every  one  can  make  a  living,  while  no 
one  able  and  willing  to  work  is  oppressed  by 
fear  of  want.  But  communities  grow  out  of 
the  new  into  the  old  and  settled  condition. 
And,  strange  to  say,  just  as  they  realize  what 
all  communities  are  striving  after,  then  they 
have  not  only  wealth  and  luxury  on  the  one 
hand,  represented  by  palaces,  parks  and  pave- 


THE  LABORER'S  GRIEVANCE.  35 

ments,  but  they  have  also,  and  invariably  with 
these  things,  destitution  and  want,  represented 
by  the  proletariat  and  the  pauper.  In  England, 
where  the  causes  have  been  much  longer  in  op- 
eration than  in  this  country,  every  twentieth 
inhabitant  is  a  pauper,  for  which  statement  I 
have  the  authority  of  so  able  a  writer  as  Mr. 
Fawcett.  According  to  the  poor-law  reports, 
at  least  one-fifth  the  community  in  England  is 
insufficiently  clad;  and  medical  reports  to  the 
Privy  Council  affirm  that  the  agricultural  labor- 
ers and  large  classes  of  working-people  in  towns 
are  too  poorly  fed  to  save  them  from  what  are 
known  as  starvation  diseases;  while  ?  large 
proportion  of  the  population  leads  a  life  of  in- 
cessant toil,  with  no  hope  for  old  age  but  pen- 
ury and  the  poor-house;  and  that  one  third  or 
one-half  of  the  families  of  the  country  are  hud- 
dled together,  six  in  a  room,  in  a  manner  ut- 
terly detrimental  to  health,  decency  and  morals. 
(Rae,  "Contem.  Soc,"  pp.  57  and  58.) 

The  laboring  man  claims  that  the  same 
causes  are  operating  in  this  country,  and  that 
the  tendency  is  in  the  same  direction.  Indeed, 
he  complains  that  the  same  result  in  thousands 
of  cases  has  already  been  reached.  The  com- 
plaint, then,  is  that  the  progress  of  society  thus 
far  has  been  partial  to   certain  classes.     The 


36  TALKb  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

wealth  of  the  country  is  increasing,  but  the 
condition  of  the  laboring  classes  is  not  improv- 
ing with  this  increase  of  wealth — a  statement 
which  I  think  altogether  too  strong.  They 
affirm  that  this  vast  increase  goes  not  in  small 
sums  to  benefit  the  many,  but  in  large  fortunes 
to  swell  the  number  of  millionaires  and  the 
wealth  of  powerful  corporations.  They  only 
reiterate  the  doctrine  of  John  Stuart  Mill  when 
they  complain  that  "the  rich  are  growing  richer, 
and  the  poor  poorer.  "  "What  hop€^,--~they 3sk, 
"is  there  for  the  laboring  man  as  leng-as-^tlxese 
conditions  remain?" 

Such,  in  brief,  are  the  complaints  which  the 
laboring  classes  make  in  reference  to  the  inad- 
equacy of  employment  and  wages.  The  words 
of  Mr.  George,  though  first  written  in  1879, 
have  been  repeated  by  him  at  various  times 
since,  and  the  report  of  every  labor-meeting 
shows  an  acceptance  and  repetition  of  those 
views  as  the  standard  doctrines  of  labor  agita- 
tors to-day. 

One  of  the  foremost  representatives  of  the 
laboring  men  of  this  country,  in  a  recent  ad- 
dress, sets  forth  another  and  distinct  grievance. 
He  complains  that  the  tendency  of  real  estate 
in  this  country  is  toward  large  holdings,  which 
place    it   further  and    further  away   from   the 


THE  LABORER'S  GRIEVANCE.  37 

reach  of  poor  men.  He  complains  that  the 
many  small  farms  are  being  united  to  make 
"bonanza"  farms;  that  immense  tracts  of  land, 
equal  in  themselves  to  empires  in  extent,  are 
held  by  syndicates  and  corporations  on  titles 
which  are  utterly  unjust,  while  the  people  need 
this  land  for  the  establishment  of  homes  and 
the  production  of  bread.  He  sets  forth  the 
fact  that  aliens,  living  in  foreign  countries, 
many  of  whom  have  never  set  foot  on  our  soil, 
already  own  twenty-one  million  acres  of  Amer- 
ican lands,  and  that  they  are  constantly  adding 
to  their  purchases.  During  a  lecture  on  Col- 
orado, by  Professor  Marshall,  which  I  recently 
attended,  he  threw  on  the  canvas  a  picture 
of  that  wonder  of  nature,  the  beautiful  Estes 
Park,  hemmed  in  by  mountains  which  kiss  the 
clouds,  and  set  with  evergreens  like  emerald 
gems  on  its  broad  lawn — trees  which  were 
planted  by  the  hand  of  Almighty  God.  And 
while  we  were  still  gazing  with  wonder  and 
admiration,  Ave  were  all  made  happier,  I  sup- 
pose, by  being  told  that  the  entire  park,  emer- 
ald-studded lawn  and  snow-capped  mountains, 
is  the  exclusive  property  of  a  foreign  noble- 
man. While  I  was  in  Colorado,  less  than  two 
years  ago,  my  attention  was  called  to  an  im- 
mense system  of  irrigation  here,  and  to  lands 


38     TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

there,  and  mines  yonder,  all  of  which,  I  was 
told,  belonged  to  alien  noblemen  and  the  like, 
until  I  began  to  wonder  how  much  they  would 
kindly  leave  for  Americans!  Down  in  New 
Mexico  I  visited  one  cattle-ranch  containing 
three  million  six  hundred  and  eighty-two  thou- 
sand (3,682,000)  acres,  and  was  told  that  the 
ranch  which  joins  it  on  the  east  contained  over 
four  million  (4,000,000)  acres,  and  was  owned 
by  a  Scotch  nobleman!  Each  of  these  tracts 
is  larger  than  the  State  of  Connecticut!  In 
some  parts  of  the  West  foreign  owners  have 
alread)'  introiluced  their  tenants  and  tenant  sys- 
tem from  across  the  sea — the  same  system 
which  has  brought  Ireland  to  penury  and  En- 
gland to  the  verge  of  revolution,  as  she  is 
this  day. 

The  speaker  to  whom  I  have  referred  com- 
plains that  these  causes  and  others  have  oper- 
ated to  close  the  unoccupied  millions  of  acres 
of  our  Western  domain  against  thousands  of 
poor  men  who  are  not  able  to  pay  the  prices 
which  speculators  already  demand.  He  com- 
plains that  this  cause  is  already  turning  the 
tides  of  immigration  back  upon  the  labor  cen- 
ters in  our  great  cities,  where  laborers  are  now 
so  numerous  that  wages  are  reduced  to  the 
point  of  bare  subsistence.      Such  is  the  claim. 


THE  LABORER'S  GRIEVANCE.  39 

And  we  must  all  allow  that  in  some  particulars 
his  statement  is  too  true.  If  not,  why  should 
there  be  such  pressure  on  the  Government  for 
the  opening  of  a  few  remaining  Indian  reser- 
vations, which  are  so  small  as  to  be  only  dots 
on  the  map?  There  is  land  in  plenty  which 
is  not  occupied  by  settlers,  or  improved,  but 
any  person  who  takes  trouble  to  investigate 
will  find  that  the  greater  part  of  this  land  is 
closed  to  actual  settlers,  except  at  speculators' 
prices.  Thus,  thousands  of  men  who  would 
go  West,  make  for  themselves  homes,  and  be- 
come food-producers,  are  turned  back  to  be 
only  food-consumers  and  competitors  in  the 
crowded  labor-markets  of  our  country.  The 
authority  who  thus  voices  the  grievance  of  la- 
bor affirms  that  it  can  no  longer  be  said: 

"To  the  West,  to  the  West,  the  land  of  the  free, 
Where  the  mighty  Missouri  rolls  down  to  the  sea; 
Where  a  man  is  a  man  if  he's  willing  to  toil, 
And  shall  have  for  his  labor  the  fruits  of  the  soil." 

He  complains  that  most  poor  men  who  now  go 
West  must  labor  for  others,  and  that  the  fruits 
must  largely  go  to  strangers. 

These  are  the  leading  complaints  of  the  la- 
boring masses  to-day.  In  this  statement  of  them 
I  have  wholly  ignored  the  fiery  and  revolution- 
ary utterances  of  many  orators  and  writers, 


40     TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

who  think  that  the  world  is  about  to  turn  over 
the  wrong  way  at  their  bidding.  The  sentiments 
to  which  I  have  given  a  hearing  in  this  discus- 
sion are  entertained  and  advocated  by  cool- 
headed,  far-seeing  and  scholarly  men,  who  are 
already  gaining' the  attention  of  the  thinking 
classes.  Only  a  short  time  ago  Mr.  George, 
who  is  a  Christian  gentleman,  was  invited  to 
address  a  large  and  influential  convention  of 
the  Episcopal  Church,  held  in  the  city  of  De 
troit,  which  he  did,  advocating  sentiments 
such  as  I  have  this  evening  quoted  from 
him.  When  any  body  of  men  come,  through 
such  representatives,  to  ask  a  respectful  hear- 
ing, we  are  bound  to  listen,  and  if  we  are 
to  answer  them  in  an  effective  way,  it  must 
be  by  more  polite  arguments  than  denuncia- 
tion. You  cannot  any  longer  dismiss  them  by 
the  bare  statement  that  "population  tends  to 
press  on  the  means  of  subsistence,"  and  that 
they  who  are  crowded  in  that  way  must  be  con- 
tent with  being  crowded.  While  the  laboring 
classes  are  being  instructed  by  such  writers  as 
Mr.  George,  you  will  have  to  look  up  some 
more  reasonable  argument. 

You  can  never  make  the  millions  believe  that 
"population  is  pressing  very  hard  on  the  means 
of  subsistence,"  while  the  great  elevators  are 


THE  LABORER'S  GRIEVANCE.  41 

bursting  their  sides  with  last  year's  wheat,  and 
while  dealers  in  all  sorts  of  food  are  complain- 
ing that  the  market  is  overstocked.  At  the 
very  time  when  the  great  grain-dealers  of  the 
world  are  asking,  "What  on  earth  shall  we  do 
with  these  extra  millions  of  bushels  of  wheat?" 
there  comes,  borne  on  the  wings  of  lightning 
across  the  sea,  a  bitter  wail  of  thousands  of  out- 
cast poor,  who  are  asking  in  despair,  "O  God, 
where  shall  we  get  bread  for  our  hunger?" 
And  it  comes  not  alone  from  the  shiftless  who 
will  not  work,  but  from  50,000  hungry  men 
who  meet  in  the  open  squares  of  the  world's 
metropolis  and  unitedly  say,  "We  are  willing 
to  work;  we  want  to  work;  give  us  work  and 
we  will  earn  our  bread;  but  bread ^  BREAD,  we 
must  have — BREAD  for  our  wives  and  our 
children." 

Now,  my  friends,  I  am  free  to  say  that  I  be- 
lieve that  the  time  is  coming  when  there  can- 
not be,  in  any  great  city,  ware-houses  full  of 
wheat,  and  in  the  same  city,  50,000  honest 
men,  willing  to  work,  but  compelled  to  be  idle 
and  to  suffer  hunger,  hearing  their  children  cry 
for  bread,  as  those  were  a  few  weeks  ago  in 
London.  I  should  have  a  poor  opinion  of  hu- 
man nature  and  human  genius  for  progress  if  I 
could  not  beheve  that  some  honorable  way  will 


42     TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

yet  be  found  to  apply  the  stored-up  bushels  of 
grain  to  hungry  mouths  and  empty  stomachs. 
The  world  has  seen  too  many  great  reforms 
accomplished  to  stop  in  dismay  and  despair 
before  this  demand  of  common  humanity  and 
benevolence.  I  believe  that  the  result  will  be 
accomplished  by  lawful  means.  But  as  surely 
as  God  is  just,  and  as  surely  as  He  has  declared 
Himself  the  Friend  of  the  poor,  so  surely  will 
this  righteous  reform  be  accomplished. 

The  reform  will  not  come  in  one  day  or  one 
year — perhaps  not  in  many  years.  But  that 
does  not  relieve  the  world's  responsibility  to 
search  for  it  with  all  diligence,  and  be  dissatis- 
fied with  ourselves  until  we  have  found  it.  He 
who  broke  the  bread  for  hungry  thousands,  by 
the  side  of  a  Galilean  lake,  has  breathed  too 
much  of  His  spirit  of  divine  love  and  compas- 
sion into  this  old  world  to  permit  men  longer 
to  sit  idly  and  indifferently  in  the  presence  of 
any  suffering.  We  are  not  yet  afflicted,  as  En- 
gland is,  by  an  overwhelmingpauper  class,  who 
send  forth  their  "bitter  cry  of  the  outcast  poor" 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth;  but  wherever  any  suf- 
fering exists  we  are  bound,  in  the  name  of  a 
noble  humanity  and  a  Christian  civilization,  to 
do  all  in  our  power  to  relieve  it;  and,  above 
all,  are  we  bound  by  wise  foresight  to  prevent, 


THE  LABORER'S  GRIEVANCE.  43 

if  possible,  the  causes  which  have  operated  to 
the  pauperizing  of  large  classes  in  the  old  world. 
Why  should  we  not?  Why  should  not  our 
generation  rise  once  again  to  a  loftier  plane  of 
ennobling  love  for  all  mankind  than  any  gener- 
ation which  has  preceded  it?  Why  should  not 
the  noble  vision  of  the  philosopher,  John  Stu- 
art Mill,  become  a  fact?  He  says:  "We  yet 
look  forward  to  a  time  when  society  will  no 
longer  be  divided  into  the  idle  and  the  indus- 
trious; when  the  rule  that  they  who  do  not 
work  shall  not  eat  will  be  fully  applied;  *  *  * 
when  the  division  of  the  produce  of  labor,  in- 
stead of  depending,  as  in  a  great  degree  it  now 
does,  on  the  accident  of  birth,  will  be  made,  by 
concert,  on  an  acknowledged  principle  of  jus- 
tice; and  when  it  will  no  longer  either  be,  or  be 
thought  to  be,  impossible  for  human  beings  to 
exert  themselves  strenuously  in  procuring  ben- 
efits which  are  not  to  be  exclusively  their  own." 
(Biog.,  p.  231.)  Mr.  Mill  did  not  profess  to  be 
a  Christian,  but  he  never  would  have  uttered 
such  a  sentiment  as  that  if  he  had  not  lived  all 
his  life  in  an  atmosphere  made  fragrant  with 
the  love  and  the  teachings  of  Christ.  The  world 
never  heard  such  a  sentiment  before  Christ 
came. 


CHAPTER  III 


THE   laborer's    FOE — SOCIALISM. 

Any  inquiry  into  the  labor  troubles  which 
afflict  society  throughout  the  civilized  world 
to-day,  must  take  account  of  the  teachings  of 
socialism.  The  laboring  man  has  had  some 
great  grievances,  especially  in  the  old  world. 
He  has  suffered  there  under  wrongs  such  as 
are  fit  to  turn  a  stone  to  tears.  Read  the  labor 
reform  speeches  of  that  noble  philanthropist, 
the  late  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  before  the  British 
Parliament;  and  if  your  heart  does  not  respond 
with  commingled  pity  and  indignation  at  the 
pictures  he  draws  and  the  appeals  which  he 
makes  for  the  oppressed,  then  your  heart  is  not 
made  like  mine.  The  love  which  the  laboring 
masses  of  England  cherish  for  the  memory  of 
that  man  stands  out  in  striking  contrast  to  the 
hatred  they  feel  for  many  of  the  British  no- 
bility. 

Next  to  these  grievances  socialism  is  at  fault 
for  the  labor  troubles  of  the  world  to-day. 
Fichte,  the  German  philosopher  (1762-1814), 


THE  LABORER'S  FOE.  45 

taught  socialism  as  a  part  of  his  speculative 
system,  and  even  incurred  the  suspicion  of  the 
German  government  by  endorsing  the  French 
Revolution.  But  Ferdinand  Lassalle  (1825- 
1864)  and  Karl  Marx  (18 18-1883)  were  the 
pioneers  of  organized  socialism  in  Germany. 
Both  made  their  appeals  directly  to  working- 
men,  they  sought  to  organize  workingmen 
to  inflame  them  with  hatred  and  to  hurl 
them  as  a  destructive  force  against  society. 
This  fact  appears  throughout  their  writings  and 
may  be  seen  in  the  very  titles  of  their  books  and 
speeches.  The  theme  of  one  of  Lassalle's  most 
famous  lectures  was:  "The  Present  Age  and 
the  Idea  of  the  Working  Class."  His  most  fa- 
mous volume  was,  "Der  Oekonomische  Julian; 
oder  Kapital  und  Arbeit"  (Berlin,  1864). 

Marx  undertook  to  transform  every  work- 
ing-men's association  into  a  socialistic  lodge. 
His  famous  communistic  manifesto,  issued  in 
1848,  is  a  statement  of  what  he  claimed  to  be 
the  revolutionary  situation  into  which  the 
course  of  industrial  development  had  brought 
modern  society.  It  affirmed  that  class  distinc- 
tions of  rich  and  poor,  and  wage  labor,  must 
be  swept  away.  He  says,  "The  communists 
do  not  conceal  their  views.  They  declare 
openly  that  their  purpose  can  only  be  attained 


46  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES, 

by  a  violent  overthrow  of  all  existing  arrange- 
ments of  society.  Let  the  ruling  classes  trem- 
ble at  a  communistic  revolution.  The  prole- 
tariate have  nothing  to  lose  but  their  chains; 
they  have  a  world  to  win.  Proletarians  of  all 
countries,  unite!"  Marx's  idea  was  commun- 
ion of  property,  state  control,  and  state  dis- 
tributation,  to  which  I  shall  refer  more  at 
length  presently.  But  there  were  those  in  the 
"International  Workingmen's  Association," 
with  which  Marx  had  so  much  to  do,  who  saw 
that  such  state  control  would  mean  the  most 
refined  and  exacting  tyranny.  They  took  up 
the  tradition  of  Prondhon,  who  held  that  "the 
true  form  of  the  state  is  anarchy. "  (Rae;  'Con- 
tem,  Soc,  p.  141.)  The  whole  attempt  from 
the  outset  has  been  an  appeal  to  the  working- 
men  of  the  world.  This  is  seen  throughout 
Marx's  famous  work  "Das  Kapital,"  which  is 
the  sacred  book  of  socialism  to-day.  In  that 
he  first  clearly  states  and  elaborates  the  theory 
on  which  modern  socialism  rests  its  claim,  that 
"all  wealth  comes  from  labor  and  that  there- 
fore to  the  laborer  it  all  belongs."  From  the 
teachings  of  Marx  and  Lassalle  American  so- 
cialism has  sprung.  Their  ideas  have  come 
among  us  not  only  in  books  and  pamphlets, 
but  in  thousands  of  living  men  who  beheve 


THE  LABORER'S  FOE.  47 

them.  Herr  Most  is  an  extremist  of  this  class. 
They  hope  for  a  better  opportunity  in  this  free 
country  than  they  found  in  the  old  world  for 
the  spread  of  their  pernicious  views. 

In  his  address  to  the  graduating  class  of 
Amherst  College  last  summer  President  Seelye 
uttered  the  following  significant  words:  "There 
is  one  question  of  our  time  toward  which  all 
other  questions,  whether  of  nature,  of  man  or 
God,  steadily  tend.  *  *  No  one  will  be 
likely  to  dispute  the  affirmation  that  the  social 
question  is,  and  is  to  be,  the  question  of  your 
time. "  Before  this  question  all  others  even 
now  are-fading  into  a  secondary  place  or  the 
deeper  shadow  of  obscurity.  For  the  spirit  of 
'jnrest  and  turmoil  which  now  pervades  the 
laboring  masses  of  this  country,  the  teachings 
of  socialists  like  Mr.  George  and  Karl  Marx 
are  largely  responsible.  For  that  spirit  of 
lawlessness  and  bold  rebellion  to  rightful  au- 
thority which  appears  here  and  there,  among 
them,  these  socialistic  teachers,  and  others  like 
Herr  Most,  are  chiefly  to  blame.  I  recall  very 
well  an  article  which  appeared  first  some 
twelve  or  fourteen  years  ago  in  a  Chicago 
paper.  The  writer  foresaw  what  we  are  now 
experiencing.  He  had  by  some  means  come 
into  possession  of  facts  and  theories  promul- 


48  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

gated  at  the  early  socialistic  meetings  of 
that  city.  He  predicted  that  socialism,  unless 
promptly  attended  to  by  the  government, 
would  grow  and  presently  have  its  organiza- 
tions throughout  the  country;  and  that  it 
would  become  first  a  menace  and  then  a  serious 
danger  to  society  and  our  free  institutions.  He 
gave  facts  and  figures;  told  of  places  where  or- 
ganizations were  being  formed,  and  of  red  flag 
doctrines  which  were  being  taught.  But  the 
writer  was  treated  as  an  alarmist  and  his  article 
was  laughed  into  insignificance. 

We  all  know  enough  of  the  doings  of  social- 
ists to  make  it  certain  that  there  was  truth  in 
what  he  wrote.  But  the  trouble  with  society 
at  large  is  that  it  is  content  with  only  a  surface 
view  of  the  evils  which  threaten  us  from  this 
source.  Tens  of  thousands  of  those  to  whom 
the  socialists  appeal,  in  and  out  of  organiza- 
tions, are  reading  incendiary  books  and  pam- 
phlets on  theories  of  labor,  capital,  and  society 
at  large.  Hundreds  of  thousands  in  this  coun- 
try to-day  have  definite  theories  of  labor  and 
finance,  which  are  more  or  less  tinged  with 
socialism.  These  theories  are  all  the  more 
dangerous  because  they  are  set  forth  not  only 
by  godless  blasphemers,  like  Herr  Most,  but  by 
men  of  religion  and  morals  like  Henry  George. 


THE  LABORER'S  FOE.  49 

A  socialistic  unrest  is  nothing  new  in  the 
world.  It  has  existed  wherever  great  masses 
of  men  have  for  any  cause  deemed  them- 
selves oppressed  by  those  who  were  more 
fortunate  in  life.  In  various  forms  it  has  reap- 
peared; at  one  time  in  the  masses  who  surged 
through  the  streets  of  Rome  and  demanded 
bread  of  some  imperial  Caesar;  at  a  later  in 
the  fermenting  throngs  who  made  the  streets 
of  Paris  run  red  with  the  blood  of  riot  and  de- 
manded the  head  of  Louis  XVI;  and  in  our 
own  days  in  the  hungry  thousands  who  press 
upon  the  statue  of  Lord  Nelson  in  Trafalgar 
Square,  demanding  bread  for  the  present  and 
legislative  reform  for  the  future. 

But  the  dangerous  element  of  the  socialism 
of  our  day  is  in  the  fact  that  the  socialists  have 
found  advocates  like  Mr.  George  of  this  coun- 
try and  Mr.  Hyndman  of  England  who  have 
reduced  the  demands  of  socialism  to  a  political 
science.  They  have  given  to  the  socialism  of 
this  day  what  it  has  never  had  before — a  feel- 
ing that  socialism  is  the  true  political  economy. 
Hitherto  socialism  has  been  dominated  only  by 
desire  and  confined  to  mob-like  outbursts  of 
passion.  But  to-day,  all  through  the  world, 
thousands  are  persuading  themselves  that  the 
prime    features    of  socialism    arc    based    upon 


50     TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

scientific  principle  and  eternal  right.  Willing 
ears  are  being  taught  that  the  whole  social 
fabric  is  constructed  upon  false  principles. 
They  are  rapidly  persuading  themselves  that 
"all  wealth  comes  from  labor;"  that  therefore 
"to  the  laborer  all  wealth  belongs."  And 
workingmen  who  are  sensitive  about  being  sus- 
pected of  socialism  should  be  careful  how  they 
quote  that  sentiment,  for  it  was  first  taught  by 
Karl  Marx  the  great  socialist,  as  the  very  bed- 
rock of  his  system.  That  is  the  recognized 
corner-stone  of  socialism  to-day.  That  is  the 
grand  principle  of  their  socialistic  economy.  A 
second  goes  with  it.  They  teach  that  all  pri- 
vate ownership  of  land  is  unjust;  that  the  gov- 
ernment should  own  the  land  and  lease  it  to 
individual  tenants  as  their  needs  require.  In 
this  way  they  hold  that  the  evils  of  land  mon- 
opoly would  be  overcome,  and  our  great  do- 
main would  be  saved  for  the  people  to  whom 
it  belongs.  These  two  cardinal  principles  are 
drawn  out  at  great  length  and  supported  by 
ingenious  arguments,  easily  understood,  readily 
remembered,  and  difficult  to  answer.  The  dan- 
ger lies  in  the  fact  that  laboring  men  generally 
are  reading  this  doctrine,  either  in  the  books 
mentioned  or  in  some  labor  document  which 
is  a  dilution  of  them,     And  the  evil  will  cul- 


THE  LABORER'S  FOE.  51 

minate  if  the  laboring  masses  are  ever  per- 
suaded that  socialism  is  based  on  principle.  It 
is  the  moral  element  which  constitutes  the 
strength  of  any  fanaticism.  Once  persuade 
the  restless  masses  that  ownership  of  land  is  as 
wrong  as  the  ownership  of  air  would  be;  once 
persuade  them  that  confiscation  and  division 
of  property  are  right,  and  the  world  will  wit- 
ness such  an  uprising  and  overturning  as  no 
fanaticism  ever  produced  before.  If  it  were 
not  for  this  feeling  of  confidence  that  the  cause 
is  somehow  just,  which  the  economists  of  so- 
cialism are  exciting,  there  would  be  no  great 
danger  from  such  men  as  advocate  dynamite 
and  the  torch. 

While  it  is  true  that  in  thousands  of  clubs 
and  labor  organizations  these  doctrines  are  be- 
ing taught,  what  are  the  people  at  large  doing 
to  meet  these  perverted  views?  Are  the  peo- 
ple informing  themselves,  and  preparing  to 
answer  wrong  theories  with  the  truth?  You 
cannot  meet  a  man  who  has  a  well  defined 
theory,  by  simply  saying  that  his  theory  is 
wrong.  You  must  understand  it  and  be  able 
to  point  out  wherein  it  is  wrong.  Then  you 
must  be  able  to  give  him  the  truth  in  its  place. 

If,  as  Milton  says,  "Childhood  shows  the 
man  as  the  morning  shows  the  day,"  would  it 


52  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

not  be  well  for  us  to  be  enquiring  what  sort  of 
a  child  this  socialism  is,  which  is  here  among 
us.  It  wasn't  born  here,  to  be  sure.  But  it  is 
here,  as  surely  as  any  troublesome  waif  was 
ever  laid  on  the  marble  steps  of  a  palace. 

With  the  feeling  of  which  I  have  spoken, 
existing  so  widely,  the  utterances  of  the  an- 
archist wing  of  the  socialists  become  horribly 
significant. 

Professor  R.  T.  Ely  in  the  CJiristian  Union 
for  April  and  May,  1884,  gives  an  able  expo- 
sition of  Socialism.  In  it  he  sets  forth  the 
doctrines  of  "The  International  Workingmen's 
Association,"  which  are  violently  socialistic. 
They  demand  "common  property,  socialistic 
production  and  distribution,  the  grossest  ma- 
terialism— for  their  god  is  their  belly, — free 
love,  in  all  social  arrangements  perfect  individ- 
ualism; or  in  other  words,  anarchy.  Nega- 
tively expressed.  Away  with  private  property! 
Away  with  all  authority!  Away  with  the  state! 
Away  with  the  family!  Away  with  religion!" 

A  scientific  paper  published  in  San  Francisco 
called  Truth  says:  "When  the  laboring  men 
understand  that  the  heaven  which  they  are 
promised  hereafter  is  but  a  mirage,  they  will 
knock  at  the  door  of  the  wealthy  robber,  with 
a  musket  in  hand  and   demand  their  share  of 


THE  LABORER'S  FOE.  53 

the  goods  of  this  Hfe  now."  Herr  Most's  filthy 
and  blasphemous  paper  is  filled  with  sentiments 
like  this:  "Religion,  authority  and  state,  are  all 
carved  out  of  the  same  piece  of  wood — to  the 
devil  with  them  all!"  He  calls  for  a  "public 
and  common  up-bringing  of  children  in  order 
that  the  old  family  may  completely  abandon  the 
field  to  free  love. "  Listen  to  a  resolution 
adopted  by  the  "International  Workingmen's 
Association"  at  its  Pittsburgh  meeting,  "Agita- 
tion for  the  purpose  of  organization;  organiza- 
tion for  the  purpose  of  rebellion.  In  these 
few  words  the  ways  are  marked,  which  workers 
must  take  if  they  w^nt  to  be  rid  of  their 
chains.  *  *  *  There  remains  but  one  re- 
course— force!"  Again  says  the  Truth:  (and 
never  did  that  poor  word  suffer  a  greater 
abuse)  "War  to  the  palace,  peace  to  the  cot- 
tage, death  to  luxurious  idleness.  We  have 
no  moments  to  waste.  Arm!  I  say  to  the 
teeth!  for  revolution  is  upon  you," 

A  socialistic  meeting  in  Chicago,  shortly  after 
the  explosions  in  London  Tower,  declared: 
"This  explosion  has  demonstrated  that  social- 
ists can  safely  go  into  large  congregations  in 
broad  day  light  and  explode  their  bombs.  A 
little  hog's  grease  and  a  little  nitric  acid  make 
a  terrible  explosion.     Ten  cents'  worth  would 


54  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

blow  a  building  to  atoms.  Dynamite  can  be 
made  out  of  the  dead  bodies  of  capitalists  as 
well  as  out  of  hogs.  All  Chicago  can  be  set 
ablaze  in  a  minute  by  electricity.  Private  prop- 
erty must  be  abolished,  if  we  have  to  use  all 
the  dynamite  there  is  and  blow  ninety-nine 
hundredths  of  the  people  off  the  face  of  the 
earth. 

The  railroad  riots  of  1877  cost  many  lives 
and  over  one  hundred  million  dollars'  worth  of 
property;  and  ten  states,  reaching  from  ocean 
to  ocean,  called  on  the  President  for  troops  to 
quell  them.  The  socialists  plainly  declare  that 
they  are  getting  ready  for  other  and  greater 
riots  of  the  same  kind.  Their  publications  are 
full  of  such  phrases  as  these:  "Get  ready  for 
another  1877;"  "Buy  a  musket  for  the  repeti- 
tion of  1877."  "Organize  companies  and  drill 
to  be  ready  for  another  1877."  A  writer  in 
New  Englandcr,  (Jan.,  1884,)  says  there  are 
200,000  members  of  organizations  in  this  coun- 
try who  are  more  or  less  socialistic.  That  is  a 
very  moderate  statement,  indeed;  400,000  or 
500,000  would  have  been  nearer  the  truth. 

Rev.  Josiah  Strong  (author  of  a  recent  book 
entitled  "Our  Country,"  to  which  I  am  in- 
debted for  many  of  the  facts  of  this  lecture,) 
was  present  in  a  meeting  at   Cincinnati  which 


THE  LABORER'S  FOE.  55 

was  addressed  by  Herr  Most.  This  socialistic 
demagogue,  expelled  from  Germany  on  account 
of  his  advocacy  of  "assassination  as  a  means 
of  progress,"  has  been  strangely  welcomed  in 
this  free  country.  His  subject  on  the  evening 
in  question  (just  after  the  Cincinnati  riots)  was 
"The  Coming  Crisis  of  the  World  and  the  So- 
cial Revolution."  Although  it  was  a  rainy 
night  the  hall  was  packed  with  a  sympathetic 
audience,  who  applauded  to  the  echo,  every 
bloodthirsty  utterance.  He  declared  that  if 
the  socialists  had  arisen  in  their  might,  during 
those  riots,  they  would  have  attacked  the  pal- 
aces of  the  rich,  instead  of  the  jail  and  the 
court  house. 

Such,  my  friends,  are  the  two  prominent 
features  of  socialism  as  it  exists  in  this  country 
to-day.  On  the  one  hand  you  have  teachers 
who  are  seeking  to  persuade  the  masses  that  a 
world-wide  confiscation  of  property  is  just, 
and  based  on  principles  of  true  political  econ- 
omy. On  the  other  you  have  incendiary  an- 
archists who  are  striving  to  inflame  the  poor 
and  excite  them  to  deeds  of  destruction  and 
bloodshed,  regardless  of  right.  These  two 
classes  of  writers  and  speakers  make  a  very 
dangerous  team.  I  have  sought  also  to  place 
before  you  some  idea  of  the  strength  and  head- 


56  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

way,  which  these  ideas  have  already  gained  in 
this  free  country. 

When  sociaHsts  are  asked  what  they  propose 
to  do  if,  unhappily  for  the  peace  of  mankind, 
their  schemes  of  destruction  should  ever  suc- 
ceed, they  are  not  so  ready  with  an  answer. 
They  say,  "Our  first  thought  is  to  pull  down; 
time  enough  to  think  of  the  rest  when  we  get 
that  done. "  But  evidently  the  thought  upper- 
most in  the  mind  of  prominent  socialists  is 
common  ownership  of  property,  and  state 
regulation  of  manufactures  and  all  commerce; 
state  supply  for  all  wants;  state  control  of  all 
systems  of  travel  and  freight.  There  will  be 
no  need  of  gold  and  silver  money;  but  labor 
checks  will  secure  everything  necessary  in 
stores  which  shall  contain  the  produce  of  labor 
and  be  managed  by  government  agents.  Mr. 
Groveland  (in  his  "Co-operative  Common- 
wealth" p.  79,  quoted  by  Washington  Gladden 
in  March  Century^  tells  how  the  thing  is  to  be 
done: 

"Suppose,  then,  every  distinct  branch  of  in- 
dustry, of  agriculture,  and  also  teachers,  phy- 
sicians, so  to  form  each  trade  and  profession  by 
itself,  a  distinct  body,  a  trades-union  (we  sim- 
ply use  the  term  because  it  is  convenient),  a 
guild,  a  corporation  managing  its  internal  af- 


THE  LABORER'S  FOE.  57 

fairs  itself,  but  subject  to  collective  control. 
Suppose  further  that  for  example  the  'heelers' 
among  the  operatives  in  a  factory  at  Lynn  come 
together  and  elect  their  foreman;  and  the 
'tappers,'  the  'solers,'  the  'finishers'  and  what- 
ever else  the  various  operatives  may  be  called, 
do  likewise.  Suppose  that  these  foremen  as- 
semble and  elect  a  superintendent  of  the  fac- 
tory, and  that  the  superintendents  of  all  the 
factories  at  Lynn  in  their  turn  elect  a — let  us 
call  him — district  superintendent.  Again  we 
shall  suppose  these  district  superintendents  of 
the  whole  boot  and  shoe  industry  to  assemble 
themselves  somewhere  from  all  parts  of  the 
country  and  elect  a  bureau  chief;  and  he,  with 
the  bureau  chiefs  of  related  industries,  say  the 
tanning  industry,  to  elect  a  chief  of  depart- 
ment. However,  we  do  not  want  too  many  of 
these  chiefs,  for  we  mean  to  make  a  working 
body,  not  a  talking  body,  out  of  them.  We 
mean  that  these  chiefs  of  department  shall 
form  the  national  board  of  administrators, 
whose  function  it  shall  be  to  supervise  the 
whole  social  activity  of  the  country.  Each 
chief  will  supervise  the  internal  affairs  of  his 
own  department,  and  the  whole  board  control 
all  those  matters  in  which  the  general  public  is 
interested. " 


58  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

I  have  not  time  this  evening  to  enter  upon 
the  answer  to  the  various  positions  held  by  so- 
ciahsts.  I  must  leave  that  for  another  talk. 
But  my  object  this  evening  has  been  to  state 
these  facts  as  clearly  as  possible,  for  a  clear 
statement  is  the  first  requisite  of  an  adequate 
answer.  And  it  has  been  my  desire  to  help 
arouse  the  law-abiding  portion  of  society  to 
the  need  of  putting  forth  some  more  adequate 
and  organized  effort  to  meet  the  pernicious 
doctrines  which  are  being  sown  broadcast  by 
the  propaganda  of  socialism.  After  all  of  the 
facts  which  I  have  this  evening  mentioned, 
(and  I  assure  you  they  are  only  samples  of  a 
great  number,)  probably  most  of  you  settle 
back  comfortably  to  the  soothing  thought 
that  all  of  these  matters  will  take  care  of  them- 
selves: that  in  this  free  country  all  such  things 
have  a  tendency  to  work  themselves  out.  Such 
an  attitude  is  of  all  things  the  most  to  be 
dreaded.  There  is  an  ironical  aphorism  which 
altogether  too  well  represents  the  general  feel- 
ing when  it  says  that  "God  takes  care  of  chil- 
dren, idiots  and  the  United  States."  There  is 
too  strong  a  disposition  to  leave,  for  God  to 
do,  the  work  of  prevention  and  cure  which  He 
has  committed  to  us,  and  which  will  not  be 
done  unless  we  do  it.     Oliver  Wendell  Holmes 


THE  LABORER'S  FOE.  59 

may  have  been  right  when  in  answer  to  the 
question,  "When  should  the  training  of  a  child 
bcc^in?"  he  said,  "A  hundred  years  before  he 
is  born."  Certain  it  is  that  influences  set  in 
motion  a  hundred  years  ago  affect  every  child 
of  the  present  generation.  A  hundred  years 
ago  our  forefathers  fought  for  us  immunity 
from  foreign  oppression,  paying  for  it  the  best 
blood  of  this  Continent.  They  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  a  mighty  republic  upon  the  corner- 
stone of  human  justice  and  equality.  They 
did  not  dream  that  any  just  complaint  of  the 
masses  could  ever  be  brought  against  it.  They 
did  not  dream  that  any  socialistic  or  anarchist 
ferment  could  ever  threaten  an  uprising  of  the 
people.  They  thought  they  had  forever  pro- 
vided against  all  such  discontent  by  commit- 
ting the  government  itself  into  the  hands  of 
the  people.  But  we  find  to-day  that  they 
failed  to  provide  for  the  illegitimate  offspring 
called  "Socialism,"  a  hundred  years  before  it 
was  born.  It  remains  for  us  to  meet  the  emer- 
gency as  best  we  can,  Hke  wise  citizens,  wilHng 
to  face  the  facts  and  to  provide  the  best  rem- 
edy. We  ought  no  longer  to  ignore  this 
movement.  While  we  sleep  the  laborers  of 
this  country  are  being  taught,  by  book  and 
pamphlet  and  fiery  speech,  that  they  are  like 


60  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

Samson,  shorn  and  sightless,  grinding  the  un- 
requited grist  of  the  Phihstincs.  And  unless 
we  look  well  Samson's  locks  will  grow  while 
we  sleep,  and  his  relentless  arms  will  shake  the 
two  pillars  of  our  American  civilization.  There 
ought  to  be  in  this  country  to-day  a  well  direct- 
ed movement,  to  place  before  the  workingman 
of  this  country  such  literature  as  will  answer 
the  arguments  which  are  seeking  to  subvert 
him.  The  socialists  are  scattering  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  documents.  How  are  the 
friends  of  law  and  order  meeting  this  activity? 
I  am  well  aware,  as  I  have  already  said  with 
emphasis  in  these  talks,  that  the  great  body  of 
working  men  in  this  country  are  loyal  and  true. 
All  honor  to  them.  They  are  no  socialists; 
they  would  scorn  the  name  and  the  imputation, 
as  a  certain  labor  advocate  has  recently  set 
forth.  He  is  indignant  that  any  number  of 
laboring  men  should  be  thought  to  be  in  dan- 
ger of  yielding  to  socialistic  principles.  His 
indignation  does  honor  to  his  heart,  but  not  to 
his  information.  Such  an  one  should  be  met 
with  a  spirit  of  candor  and  kindness.  Many 
are  already  under  the  influence  of  socialistic 
notions  who  do  not  know  the  proper  name  for 
ideas  which  they  advocate.  The  hour  of  dan- 
ger does  not  wait  for  majorities.     A  majority 


THE  LABORER'S  FOE.  61 

of  the  laboring  men  of  this  country  were  no 
socialists  in  1877,  and  yet  the  few  who  were, 
wrought  great  mischief,  when  they  joined  the 
mob.  I  do  not  wonder  that  they  feel  annoyed 
at  any  word  which  seems  to  classify  honorable 
laborers  with  socialists.  No  word  of  mine 
shall  ever  do  it.  Is  there  not  the  most  press- 
ing need  that  honorable  working  men  should 
be  prompt  in  every  way  to  disavow  and  rebuke 
the  socialists  who  profess  to  speak  for  them  ? 
Then  too,  our  brother,  cannot  be  ignorant  that 
socialistic  ideas  have  made  great  progress 
among  laboring  men  in  this  country  during  the 
last  ten  years.  "He  cannot  be  ignorant  that 
the  appeals  of  socialists  are  being  addressed 
especially  to  the  laborers  of  the  land.  He 
cannot  be  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  those  ap- 
peals are  receiving  great  encouragement  from 
some  source.  Whence?  Who  bought  the  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  copies  of  Henry 
George's  book  already  sold  in  this  country? 
Who  are  reading  it  to-day?  Is  he  ignorant 
that  thousands  of  laboring  men  sympathize 
with  that  book?  Then,  he  has  not  studied 
the  problem  with  the  care  which  becomes  an 
intelligent  laborer.  But  just  to  the  extent 
that  any  man  sympathizes  Vv'ith  the  aims  of 
that  book,  he  is  a  socialist.     Let  us  not  dis- 


62     TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

guise  it.  Mr.  George  is  a  socialist,  who  would 
have  the  real  property  of  the  people  confiscated 
by  the  government.  The  cause  of  socialism  is 
one  throughout  the  world.  The  socialists  of 
America  rejoice  over  the  riots  in  Belgium,  and 
those  of  Berlin  send  their  leader  to  help  them 
on.  Who  are  the  rioters?  Are  they  not 
workingmen  who  have  been  converted  to  so- 
cialism? Who  elected  the  twenty-four  avow- 
edly socialistic  members  of  the  German  Reich- 
stag in  1884?  Did  not  the  socialistic  working 
men  of  Germany!  Is  it  a  matter  of  no  alarm 
that  the  socialistic  vote  of  the  German  empire 
has  advanced  as  follows:  In  1871,  123,975; 
1874,351,952;  1877,493.288;  1878,537,158? 
In  1884  the  avowed  socialists  of  Germany  in 
electing  those  twenty-four  members,  cast  700,- 
000  votes,  making  an  advance  of  nearly  600,- 
000  votes  in  thirteen  years.  ("Our  Country," 
p.  92.) 

But  if  you  say  that  it  is  too  far  away,  let  us 
come  nearer  home.  Who  are  the  members  of 
the  "Socialistic  Labor  Party"  and  the  "Inter- 
national Workingmen's  Association"  of  this 
country?  Those  societies  are  avowedly  social- 
istic in  their  constitutions.  Who  compose  their 
thousands  of  members?  Who  elected  the  four 
socialistic    aldermen    of    Chicago    in  the  year 


THE  LABORER'S  FOE.  63 

1878?  Who  compose  the  25,000  Socialists  of 
Chicago,  who  are  already  organized  there? 
Three  members  of  the  Illinois  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives and  one  State  Senator  were  elected 
the  same  year  (I878),  on  a  platform  little  short 
of  socialism.  Who  did  it?  What  leads  a  man 
of  President  Seeley's  known  conservatism,  can- 
dor and  information  to  declare  that  "there  are 
probably  100,000  men  in  the  United  States  to- 
day whose  animosity  to  all  existing  social  insti- 
tutions is  hardly  less  than  boundless?"  Come, 
brother,  tell  me  why  I  find  stanzas  like  the  fol- 
lowing in  a  labor  sheet  published  in  Chicago 
last  week? — 

"Toiling  millions  now  are  waking — 
See  them  marching  on; 
All  the  tyrants  now  are  shaking, 
Ere  their  power  is  gone. 

Chorus. — Storm  the  fort,  ye  Knights  of  Labor, 
Battle  for  our  cause; 
Equal  rights  for  every  neighbor — 
Down  with  tyrant  laws  !" 

We  have  no  "tyrant  laws"  in  this  free  country, 
brother,  and  we  call  those  who  talk  about 
overthrowing  our  laws  "  Socialists.  "  If  you  do 
not,  then  we  disagree  in  definitions  only;  for 
you  certainly  cannot  dispute  the  facts.  Tell 
me,  brother,  why  do  we  find  such  head-lines  as 
these  in  representative  labor  journals?  I  clipped 


64     TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

them  from  a  Chicago  paper,  printed  in  the  in- 
terests of  laboring  men  (March  26,  1886): — 
"The  Labor  Crisis;"  "An  Impending  Social 
Revolution,  Involving  the  Question  of  Mastery 
Between  Capital  and  Labor,  Manhood  and 
Dollars,  God  and  Satan,  Heaven  and  Hell." 
Tell  me,  brother,  how  docs  that  talk  differ  from 
such  as  we  find  in  avowedly  socialistic  organs? 
Don't  the  socialists  talk  just  that  way?  You 
say  "a  few  crazy  cranks  have  advocated  this 
doctrine.  "  Could  "afcw  crazy  cranks"  accom- 
plish all  of  these  results?  Are  the  members  of 
the  "Socialistic Labor  Party"  and  the  "Interna- 
tional Workingmen's  Association"  a  few  crazy 
cranks?  "Crazy"  and  "cranky"  you  may  call 
them;  but  they  are  not  "few."  I  do  not  blame 
you  for  disavowing  any  connection  with  social- 
ists. Honor  to  you  for  that.  But  look  well 
into  the  facts  before  you  say  again  that  social- 
ism is  not  spreading  among  American  work- 
ingmen.  We  must  speak  of  these  things,  and 
in  the  light  of  facts  we  must  ask  the  attention 
of  intelligent  workingmen. 

"America  holds  the  future,"  says  Matthew 
Arnold.  But  it  is  equally  true  that  the  future 
holds  something  for  America.  What  shall  it 
be?  We  have  here  resources  capable  of  sup- 
porting   one    billion    human    beings.       Glad- 


THE  LABORER'S  FOE.  65 

stone  was  right  when  he  said,  "America  has 
a  base  for  the  greatest  continuous  empire 
ever  established  by  man."  Who  can  contem- 
plate such  statements  without  emotions  of  na- 
tional pride?  But,  on  the  other  hand,  who  can 
witness  the  progress  of  ideas  which  are  now 
among  us  without  serious  misgivings?  He  who 
sees  an  immigrant  train  unloading  its  newly-ar- 
rived hundreds  on  our  Western  prairies  gets  a 
new  view  of  the  lines  of  the  poet: 

"I  hear  the  tread  of  pioneers, 
Of  nations  yet  to  be; 
The  first  low  wash  of  waves,  where  soon 
Shall  roll  a  human  sea." 

It  is  worth  something  to  live  in  such  a  time, 
but  the  responsibilities  of  living  are  correspond- 
ingly great. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THE  laborer's   FALLACY: 

"rich,  richer — POOR,  POORER." 

"There  never  was  and  there  never  will  be  a 
nation  permanently  great,  consisting  for  the 
greater  part  of  wretched  and  miserable  fam- 
ilies." So  said  William  Cobbett  in  his  "Cottage 
Economy,"  more  than  half  a  century  ago. 
The  world  has  not  discovered  anything  since 
which  would  disprove  that  utterance.  "Miser- 
able families"  make  a  miserable  nation.  Wit- 
ness the  pauper  dependence  of  Egypt,  crawling 
before  England's  bond-holders,  and  trembling 
before  the  Krupp  guns  of  her  sea-armament. 
Witness  the  waning  glory  and  vanishing  power 
of  the  Turkish  Crescent  in  Europe.  Depend 
upon  it,  Mr.  Cobbett  is  right.  He  has  echoed 
a  decree  of  Almighty  God  in  those  words.  No 
nation  can  at  the  same  time  write  "misery"  on 
the  homes  of  its  masses  and  "mighty"  on  the 
dome  of  its  Capitol.  The  dome  of  any  nation's 
power  will  be   decayed  by  the   dust  and  damp 


THE  LABORER'S  FALLACY.        67 

of  general  poverty.  We  cannot,  therefore,  as 
loyal  citizens,  be  indifferent  to  the  statement 
so  often  made  in  these  days,  that  "the  rich  are 
getting  richer,  and  the  poor  poorer. "  If  that 
statement  is  true,  in  all  respects,  then  it  ought 
to  cause  the  deepest  solicitude,  not  only  in  the 
heart  of  every  Christian  and  every  philanthro- 
pist, but  in  the  heart  of  every  patriot  as  well. 
If  any  law  is  operating  toward  the  impoverish- 
ment of  the  masses  and  the  enrichment  of  the 
few,  we  must  check  it  or  die.  The  spirit  of  the 
gospel  is  no  more  certainly  arrayed  against 
such  a  law  than  the  testimony  of  history.  Every 
crumbling  marble  of  Baalbec  or  Palmyra, 
every  decayed  wall  of  Babylon  or  Nineveh, 
and  every  broken  column  of  imperial  Rome,  is 
a  chapter  of  warning  to  those  who  would  pan- 
der to  the  few  and  pauperise  the  many.  In 
view  of  such  truth  no  thoughtful  person  can 
hear  unmoved  the  wail  of  want  and  misery 
which  breaks  forth  now  and  then  from  the 
crowded  tenement  barracks  of  our  great  cities. 
When  one  of  those  ten-story  death-traps  goes 
down,  carrying  with  it  thirty  or  sixty  victims 
to  their  death,  we  are  for  the  moment  aroused; 
and  in  view  of  such  revelations,  as  are  then 
made,  we  do  not  wonder  that  some,  whose 
range  of  vision  is  narrowed  to  a  few  facts,  are 


68  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

impressed  that  "the  poor  are  yearly  growing 
poorer."  If  the  laboring  men  of  this  country 
were  to  look  only  at  such  scenes,  where  pov- 
erty herds  its  thousands  and  misery  rules  as  a 
queen,  they  might  easily  lose  heart.  Such 
facts  are  the  stock  in  trade  of  agitators,  under 
whose  manipulation  the  facts,  which  are  bad 
enough,  lose  none  of  their  horrors.  But,  my 
friends,  the  statement  which  we  are  this  even- 
ing examining  is  a  very  broad  one.  It  under- 
takes to  tell  us  that,  as  a  general  rule,  from 
Atlantic  to  Pacific,  "the  rich  are  growing  richer 
and  the  poor  poorer. "  Evidently  no  few  facts 
gathered  from  certain  quarters  of  our  great 
cities,  can  settle  so  broad  a  question.  One 
who  has  a  theory  to  establish  may  easily  con- 
trast the  poverty  of  some  "Five  Points"  with 
the  wealth  of  some  "  Fifth  Avenue "  or  "  Euclid, " 
and  say,  "Behold  the  misery  of  the  poor  and 
the  mockery  of  the  rich.''  But  such  declama- 
tion is  not  proof  that  the  tendency  is  toward 
a  despoiling  of  the  poor  for  the  benefit  of  the 
rich. 

The  formula  of  theorists  which  we  are  this 
evening  examining  contains  two  statements: 
"the  rich  are  becoming  richer,"  and  "the  poor 
are  becoming  poorer.''  We  may  at  once  and 
without  argument  admit  the  first  part  of  the 


THE  LABORER'S  FALLACY.        69 

formula.  Our  country  has  grown  with  aston- 
ishing rapidity.  At  the  opening  of  this  century 
the  United  States  had  only  four  and  a  quarter 
millions  of  people  (4,306,446).  In  i860  the 
population  had  increased  to  nearly  twenty- 
seven  millions  (26,922,537).  At  our  last  cen- 
sus (1880)  we  had  over  fifty  millions  of  people 

(50,155,783). 

Such  prodigious  growth,  unparalled  in  the 
history  of  the  world,  involves,  of  necessity, 
mighty  industries  and  corresponding  growth  of 
wealth.  The  development  of  natural  resources 
in  like  degree,  combining  with  the  capital  which 
has  been  brought  over  from  Europe,  means  that 
this  country  has  been  increasing  in  wealth;  and 
under  our  system  the  country  grows  wealthy 
only  by  the  increasing  prosperity  of  individu- 
als. It  must  be  admitted  also  that  many  for- 
tunes have  been  dishonestly  amassed.  It  is  true 
that  many  have  grown  rich  by  means  which 
are  oppressive  and  outrageous.  When  the  op- 
erators of  some  Board  of  Trade  "corner  the 
market,"  force  up  the  price  of  wheat,  and  make 
millions  on  their  "deal,"  they  are  robbing  the 
poor.  Every  poor  man  who  is  thus  compelled 
to  contribute  to  a  millionaire's  palace,  by  pay- 
ing more  than  he  ought  for  the  bread  with  which 
he  feeds  his  family,  has  a  just  cause  of  com- 


70     TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

plaint.  You  and  I  have  all  been  assessed  to 
help  pay  for  the  marble  fronts  of  the  grain- 
gamblers  in  Chicago.  Against  that  sort  of  thing 
I  protest.  I  sympathize  with  every  word  which 
condemns  it.  Every  additional  dime  which 
these  "operations"  have  compelled  me  to  pay 
for  my  flour  has  been  stolen  from  me.  The  law 
may  shield  the  men  who  do  it,  but  the  blight 
and  mildew  of  God's  righteous  curse  is  on  such 
wealth  as  that.  "I  have  watched  this  thing  a 
long  time,"  said  a  gentleman  of  Chicago  to  me; 
"the  man  who  moves  into  a  marble  front  on  a 
'kicky  deal'  is  only  waiting  his  turn  to  be  closed 
out  by  the  sheriff.  I  could  take  you  to  some 
of  the  finest  residences  in  the  city  which  have 
changed  hands  four  or  five  times,  in  the  ups 
and  downs  of  wheat  operations.  "  The  extent 
to  which  the  evils  of  this  legalized  gambling 
have  grown  are  causing  many  anxiously  to  in- 
quire how  the  country  is  to  protect  itself.  "One 
bushel  in  seven  of  the  wheat  crop  of  the  United 
States  is  received  by  the  Produce  Exchange  of 
New  York,  and  its  traders  'buy'  and  'sell'  two 
bushels  for  every  one  that  is  grown  in  the  en- 
tire country."  The  cotton  plantations  yielded 
one  year  less  than  six  million  bales;  but  the 
New  York  Exchange  sold  thirty-two  millions 
that  same  year.   Pennsylvania  produces  twenty- 


THE  LABORER'S  FALLACY.        71 

four  millions  of  barrels  of  oil  in  a  year,  and  the 
Petroleum  Exchanges  in  the  same  year  sell 
two  thousand  millions  of  barrels!  ("Our  Coun- 
try, "p.  1  17.)  The  country  at  large  is  assessed 
millions  upon  millions  every  year  to  build  up 
these  dishonest  fortunes.  It  is  estimated  that 
the  South  alone  has  lost  over  a  billion  of  dol- 
lars since  the  war,  in  wheat  and  cotton  specu 
lations.  What  the  many  have  lost,  the  few 
have  won.  And  there  would  be  little  pity 
wasted  on  the  losers  if  they  were  confined  to 
unsuccessful  gamblers.  But  no  "operation"  of 
that  sort  ever  terminates  without  an  assessment 
upon  all  who  buy  wheat  for  their  bread,  or  cot- 
ton for  their  clothing.  Why  should  members 
of  our  national  Congress  be  sensitive  when  the 
chaplain  mentions  such  an  evil  in  his  prayer? 
If  there  are  men  in  Congress  who  have  been 
guilty  of  this  thing,  they  ought  to  be  weeded 
out  by  the  ballots  of  workingmen  whom  their 
gambling  has  robbed.  I  have  all  sympathy  for 
those  good  laws  of  our  land  which  encourage 
every  man  to  be  frugal,  and  to  provide  a  com- 
petence for  his  declining  years.  I  rejoice  when 
I  witness  the  success  of  honest  industry  and 
honest  business.  "My  boys,"  said  a  dying 
man,  "I  leave  you  a  little  money,  and  there 
isn't  a  dishonest  dollar  in  it. "     If  all  the  wealth 


72  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

of  this  country  had  been  accumulated  on  that 
plan,  there  would  be  less  complaint  than  there 
is  to-day. 

Such  is  one  feature  of  the  growth  of  dishon- 
est wealth.  All  such  growth  involves  danger, 
for  that  which  is  built  upon  dishonesty  is  meas- 
uring its  way  to  a  downfall.  We  must  find  a 
way  to  correct  these  evils.  They  grow  from  that 
spirit  of  mammonism  which  is  too  predominant 
in  our  times;  which,  encouraged  by  such  quick 
means  as  has  too  often  attended  these  dishonest 
operations,  has  led  multitudes  to  seek  for  wealth 
without  desiring  to  render  a  fair  equivalent. 
What  town  so  small  in  our  day  as  not  to  have 
its  "bucket-shop,"  through  which  regular  con- 
tributions are  made  to  the  wealth  of  cosmopol- 
itan operators?  And  one  thing  more:  The 
men  who  lose  by  gambling  in  a  bucket-shop  are 
just  as  wicked  as  the  men  who  get  rich  by  gam- 
bling on  'Change.  Both  have  the  same  desire 
and  the  same  principles.  One  succeeds,  and 
the  other  does  not. 

Other  dangers  attend  the  spirit  of  money- 
making  which  too  largely  dominates  our  times. 
When  slavery  still  wielded  its  lash,  the  mer- 
chants of  Boston  mobbed  William  Lloyd  Gar- 
rison and  hissed  Wendell  Phillips.  Why?  They 
cared  more  for  their  trade  with  the  South  than 


THE  LABORER'S  FALLACY.        73 

for  the  poor  slave.  When  important  Mormon 
legislation  was  pending  not  long  ago,  certain 
New  York  merchants  telegraphed  to  members 
of  Congress:  "New  York  sold  $13,000,000 
worth  of  goods  to  Utah  last  year.  Hands  off!" 
When  the  love  of  wealth  takes  the  place  of 
fidelity  to  principle,  it  will  be  an  unhappy  day 
for  this  country.  When  any  person  finds  him- 
self verging  toward  such  a  disposition;  it  is  high 
time  for  him  to  turn  to  those  words  of  Christ 
which  say,  "How  hardly  shall  they  that  have 
riches  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God." 

Concerning  the  evils  of  great  corporations, 
which  by  their  wealth  have  already  and  noto- 
riously corrupted  legislation  time  and  again,  I 
have  not  time  more  than  to  allude.  There  is  a 
growing  evil  which  is  represented  by  the  fact  that 
in  1884,  when  there  were  seventy-six  United 
States  Senators,  twenty  of  them  were  million- 
aires; and  of  that  twenty,  many  were  million- 
aires many  times  over.  These  twenty  men  did 
not  get  into  the  United  States  Senate  because 
they  were  conspicuous  for  legislative  ability.  In 
many  cases  they  have  proven  conspicuous  by 
the  lack  of  it.  In  several  cases  they  have  been 
men  whose  bad  and  immoral  character  was  no- 
torious and  even  infamous.  Now,  the  question 
is,  how  came  such  men  in  the   Senate  of  the 


74     TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES, 

United  States?  No  one  supposes  that  their 
election  was  in  response  to  popular  demand. 
But  somehow  they  "got  there."  Did  their 
wealth  constitute  a  mysterious  and  potent  rea- 
son? If  ever  the  time  comes  when  the  people 
think  that  seats  in  the  United  States  Senate 
are  for  sale  to  the  highest  bidder,  they  will  wipe 
it  out.  And  if  the  time  ever  comes  when  they 
have  just  reason  to  think  so,  it  ought  to  be 
wiped  out.  We  will  not  have  any  "House  of 
Lords"  in  this  free  country.  We  will  have  no 
legislature,  nor  any  branch  of  any  legislature, 
into  which  the  poor  may  not  enter,  if  he  is  com- 
petent, as  well  as  the  rich. 

These  are  facts  lying  along  the  line  of  our 
national  prosperity  to  which  we  must  give  heed 
lest  they  curse  us.  We  need  to  be  on  our 
guard  against  that  spirit  of  materialism  which 
usually  grows  with  wealth.  We  need  more  of 
that  kind  of  character  which  led  Agassiz  to 
say:  "I  am  offered  five  hundred  dollars  a  night 
to  lecture,  but  I  decline  all  invitations,  for  I 
have  no  time  to  make  money. "  But  the  spirit 
of  this  age,  it  is  to  be  feared,  can  only  poorly 
understand  such  a  man.  "How  much  can  I 
make?"  is  the  great  question.  There  is  an- 
other question  which  ought  always  to  go  with 
that:  "What  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the 
whole  world  and  lose  his  soul?" 


THE  LABORER'S  FALLACY.        75 

I  have  not  thought  it  necessary  to  present 
any  figures  to  prove  that  wealth  has  been  in- 
creasing. The  fact  is  manifest.  The  rich  have 
grown  richer.  I  have  thought  it  rather  suffi- 
cient to  point  out  some  of  the  dangers  which 
accompany  an  increase  of  wealth,  and  especial- 
ly some  of  those  dangers  which  are  more  prom- 
inently connected  with  our  present  line  of 
thought. 

But  the  real  significance  of  the  formula 
which  we  are  examining  lies  in  the  statement 
that  the  "poor  are  growing  poorer."  When 
tlie  laboring  poor  come  to  believe  such  a  doc- 
trine they  begin  to  regard  their  case  as  hopeless. 
When  they  believe  that,  they  are  filled  with 
that  "keen,  maddening  anguish"  which  prepares 
the  evil-disposed  for  deeds  of  riot.  That  is 
why  the  socialists  harp  so  persistently  on  this 
one  string.  Any  man  who  has  no  grace  in  his 
heart  and  who  believes  that  there  is  nothing  in 
the  present  order  for  the  poor  man,  but  to 
grow  poorer  still,  will  be  ready,  presently,  for 
any  lawless  deed,  which  promises  relief. 

Now  the  fact,  important  to  be  known  just  at 
this  time  is  this:  the  poor  are  not  groiving 
poorer.  I  put  that  statement  squarely  over 
against  the  statement  of  socialism.  In  some 
isolated  localities  the  poor  are  growing  poorer. 


76  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

There  always  have  been  such  cases;  there  al- 
ways will  be  until  the  characters  of  men  are 
changed.  No  clap-trap  panacea  of  socialists 
will  change  the  condition  of  things  against 
which  they  complain  so  bitterly.  But  setting 
aside  special  cases,  and  drawing  our  general 
statement  from  a  wide  induction  of  the  facts 
over  the  whole  field  it  can  be  truly  said  that 
the  poor  are  not  growing  poorer — but  are  ad- 
vancing into  new  conditions  of  comfort.  I  am 
aware  that  many  figures  are  usually  tiresome; 
but  I  am  encouraged  by  the  interest  which  you 
have  manifested  in  those  hitherto  given  in 
these  addresses,  to  present  those  which  are 
necessary  to  our  present  inquiry. 

In  England  the  causes  which  produce  pov- 
erty and  wealth  have  been  much  longer  in  op- 
eration than  here.  The  problem  is  worked 
much  nearer  to  a  solution  there  than  here.  If, 
therefore,  "the  poor  are  growing  poorer,"  an 
examination  of  any  certain  period  of  English 
history  ought  to  discover  that  law  in  full  opera- 
tion. Let  us  take,  therefore,  for  our  compar- 
ison the  years  1843,  1851,  1864  and  from  1880 
to  1883.  Let  us  say  they  are  poor  in  England 
who  have  less  that;^i50  or  $750.  For  such 
families  in  England  the  average  income  in  1843 
was  ;^40,  a  family;  in   1851  the  income  of  the 


THE  LABORER'S  FALLACY.        77 

poor  had  increased  to  ;^58,  a  year;  while  be- 
tween the  years  1880  and  1883  the  income  of 
the  poor  had  increased  to  an  amount  between 
£gS  and  ;^ioo  per  year.  That  is  from  the  year 
1843  to  1883,  a  period  of  forty  years,  the 
average  income  of  the  poor  of  England,  by 
families,  increased  from  about  $200  to  $450  a 
year — an  increase  of  130  per  cent,  in  forty 
years.  (See  Mallock,  "Property  and  Progress" 
pp.  201-204.)  When  the  socialists  of  Eng- 
land succeed  in  setting  aside  these  figures  and 
the  facts  on  which  they  are  based,  they  may 
consider  themselves  in  a  fair  way  to  success- 
Things  are  bad  enough  yet  among  the  laboring 
poor  in  places  of  England.  But  the  facts  are 
not  hopeless.  They  do  not  match  with  the 
philosophy  of  despair.  On  the  contrary,  they 
are  full  of  hope.  If  the  income  of  the  labor- 
ing poor  of  England  has  made  an  average  in- 
crease of  130  per  cent,  in  forty  years,  then 
certainly  the  "poor  are  not  growing  poorer"  in 
that  land.  The  total  income  of  the  poorer 
classes  of  England  to-day  is  equal  to  the  total 
income  of  all  classes  in  185 1 ,  and  exceeds  by  a 
hundred  millions  the  income  of  all  classes  as  it 
was  in  1843.  ("Property  and  Progress,"  219.) 
In  other  words,  the  laboring  classes  of  England 
to-day  are  in  the  same  condition  as  they  would 


78  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

have  been  in  185 1,  if  the  entire  income  of  the 
rich  had  been  divided  among  the  ])oor  pro  rata. 
Is  there  nothing  encouraging  in  these  facts? 
Do  they  not  bid  the  laboring  men  of  England 
and  the  world  to  hope  for  and  expect  a  better 
day?  Do  they  not  tell  the  toiling  millions  that 
the  brighter  day  is  surely  coming  by  the  opera- 
tion of  causes  which  will  not  blot  it  with  the 
eternal  disgrace  of  red-flag  socialism?  If  even 
in  England,  where  the  Manchester  doctrine  is 
in  freest  operation,  these  things  are  true,  then 
surely  it  is  time  to  dismiss  Ricardo's  "iron  law 
of  wages"  from  the  accepted  truths  of  political 
economy.  If  it  is  true  that  in  forty  years  the 
average  annual  income  of  England's  poor  in- 
creased 130  per  cent.,  then  it  cannot  be  true 
that  "wages  tend  toward  the  lowest  point  of 
human  subsistence. " 

If  there  were  time  it  would  be  extremely  in- 
teresting to  examine  the  facts  in  relation  to  the 
increase  of  wealth  in  England.  I  can  state 
only  this:  The  increase  has  not  been  anything 
like  130  per  cent,  in  forty  years.  The  facts 
are  ample  which  prove  the  statement  beyond  a 
question.  Any  doubter  can  satisfy  himself  by 
examining  the  figures  given  on  pages  199-202 
in  Mr.  Mallock's  "Property  and  Progress." 
While  therefore  "the  rich  have  been  growing 


THE  LABORER'S  FALLACY.  -79 

richer"  in  England,  it  is  also  true  that  the  poor 
have  been  advancing  into  conditions  of  greater 
comfort.  It  is  also  true  that  this  advance  of 
the  poor  into  comparative  comfort  has  been 
more  rapid  than  the  increase  of  wealth,  even 
in  England.  Remember  this  whenever  }'ou 
hear  the  oft  repeated  statement  that  "the  rich 
are  growing  richer  and  the  poor  poorer."  If 
any  person  is  so  unhappily  constituted  that  he 
prefers  to  believe  that  everything  is  tending  to- 
ward darkness  rather  than  light,  he  shall  be 
welcome  to  his  gloom;  but  if  he  comes  forward 
to  dispute  my  statements,  he  must  in  fairness 
answer  the  facts  which  I  have  given.  The  ten- 
dency is  not  toward  darkness  and  despair.  It 
is  toward  hope  and  good  cheer. 

But  how  about  our  own  country?  What  are 
the  facts  here?  Do  the  facts  warrant  any  man 
in  saying  that  "the  poor  are  becoming  poorer?" 
We  may  well  be  puzzled  to  know  just  what 
this  question  means.  Does  it  mean  that  the 
vagabond  and  pauper  classes  are  becoming 
poorer?  There  were  paupers  in  this  country 
from  the  time  that  the  first  ship  load  of  immi- 
grants, fresh  from  the  debtor  prisons  of  Eng- 
land, were  landed  on  the  banks  of  the  James. 
Have  these  classes,  who  nearly  three  centuries 
ago  had   nothing,   continued  to  grow  poorer? 


80  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

Evidently  that  cannot  be  meant.  Does  it  mean 
that  the  wage-earners  of  this  country  receive 
less  for  their  labor  than  they  did  one  hundred 
or  two  hundred  yeacs  ago?  Does  it  mean  that 
wages  are  growing  less  and  less?  Perhaps 
that  is  meant,  but  it  is  not  true.  During 
the  past  decade  certain  facts  connected  with  the 
great  influx  of  foreign  immigrants  to  our  min- 
ing and  manufacturing  districts  have  doubtless 
lowered  wages  in  localities.  The  census  of 
1880  shows  a  total  of  7,870,493  persons  en- 
gaged in  agriculture.  Of  this  number  less  than 
one  million  (812,829)  are  foreign  born.  While 
the  total  number  employed  in  manufacturer's 
trades  and  mines  was  3,837,112,  of  whom  i,- 
225,787  were  foreign  born.  How  long  this 
proportion  shall  hold  we  cannot  tell,  nor  can 
we  tell  what  elements  may  soon  modify  it.  La- 
boring men  may  indeed  justly  complain  if  mine 
owners  or  foundry  men  go  to  Congress,  asking 
for  additional  tariff,  on  the  plea  that  our  labor 
will  be  benefitted,  if  as  soon  as  they  secure 
their  additional  tariff  they  forthwith  import  a 
drove  of  Italian  padrones  or  Hungarian  peas- 
ants to  do  the  work  at  one-half  the  former 
wages.  Hasn't  that  ever  been  done?  Who 
can  deny  it?  Do  you  want  the  facts?  You  can 
get  them  at  more  than  one  Pennsylvania  mine 


THE  LABORER'S  FALLACY.  81 

to-day.    Such  influences  are  doubtless  degrad- 
ing to  American  labor. 

But,  in  spite  of  all  that  is  discouraging,  the 
outlook  is  brighter  for  the  laboring  classes  in 
America  than  elsewhere  in  the  world;  and, 
when  all  of  the  facts  are  considered,  it  was 
never  brighter  than  to-day.  Mr.  George 
thinks  that  the  cure  for  labor  troubles  must  lie 
in  the  increase  of  land-holders — in  giving  to 
laboring  men  an  opportunity  to  become  farm- 
ers, if  they  desire.  Now,  the  encouraging  fact, 
my  friends,  is  that  just  that  thing  is  being  accom- 
plished in  this  country.  The  number  of  farms 
is  increasing  more  rapidly,  in  proportion,  than 
our  population.  Notwithstanding  our  unheard- 
of  increase  of  population,  the  number  of  farms 
is  increasing  still  more  rapidly.  In  1850  we 
had  a  population  of  23,000,000  (in  round  num- 
bers), and  1,400,000  farms.  In  1870  our  pop- 
ulation was  38,000,000,  and  the  number  of 
farms  was  3,000,000.  That  is,  in  twenty  years 
the  number  of  farms  had  increased  more  than 
100  per  cent,  while  the  population  had  increased 
only  65  per  cent.  This  relative  increase  of  the 
number  of  farms  over  the  increase  of  popula- 
tion is  still  maintained;  for,  according  to  the 
census  of  1880,  we  had  50,000,000  people  and 
4,000,000  farms. 


82  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

Now,  what  does  all  of  this  mean?  It  means 
that  thousands  every  year  are  advancing  out 
of  the  condition  of  day-laborers  into  the  con- 
dition of  land-owners  and  farmers.  It  means 
that  thousands,  who  last  year  could  not  afford 
to  own  farms,  have  so  far  bettered  their  condi- 
tion that  this  year  they  can.  The  additional 
number  of  farms  represents,  in  large  degree,  the 
wage-savings  of  day-laborers.  If  the  poor 
were  in  fact  becoming  poorer,  would  this  state 
of  things  be  possible?  If  some  one  should  say: 
"But  farmers  are  not  among  the  poor  of  whom 
we  are  now  talking;  any  one  who  is  able  to  own  a 
farm  is  not  poor,  in  any  such  sense  as  we  are  now 
considering,"  I  should  answer:  "Exactly  so: 
and  that's  the  encouraging  feature.  Some  who 
were  so  poor  that  a  year  ago  they  could  not 
own  land  are  now  able  to  purchase  it;  and  this 
number  is  increasing  more  rapidly  than  the  pop- 
ulation, in  proportion.  Where  did  the  money 
come  from?  It  came  from  the  savings  of  wage- 
workers,  because  poor  people  get  their  money 
in  the  form  of  wages.'' 

Now,  these  facts  are  well  worthy  of  our  at- 
tention. They  are  drawn  from  the  official  cen- 
sus reports  of  our  country,  and  their  accuracy 
cannot  be  assailed.  Of  course,  if  any  one  is  an 
agitator,  drawing  his  miserable  living  by  play- 


THE  LABORER'S  FALLACY.  83 

ing  upon  the  prejudices  of  the  poor,  he  can  ig- 
nore tlie  facts,  as  that  class  usually  does.  But  to 
thoughtful  laboring  men  these  facts  are  full  of 
hope.  Of  course,  the  increase  in  the  number 
of  farms  does  not  represent  the  only  form  of 
wage-savings.  Fully  as  many  or  probably  more 
wage-workers  have  invested  their  savings  in 
other  ways.  What  shall  we  say,  then,  of  the 
fact  that,  since  1850,  the  number  of  farms  has 
increased  by  a  full  million  more  than  the  pro- 
portionate increase  of  population? 

It  cannot  be  said  that  this  immense  gain  in 
the  number  of  farms  has  come  by  the  subdivis- 
ion of  large  farms  among  the  children  of  a  sec- 
ond generation,  for  Mr.  George  especially  com- 
plains that  the  tendency  is  squarely  in  the 
opposite  direction — toward  the  concentration  of 
small  farms  into  larger.  And  doubtless  there 
has  been  at  least  as  much  of  concentration  as 
of  subdivision.  What  then?  The  increase  rep- 
resents the  degree  of  advance  out  of  poverty 
into  comfort.  The  poor  are  not  therefore  grow- 
ing poorer.  Their  condition  is  not  one  of  hope- 
less retrogression  into  darkness,  but  of  advance 
into  the  sunshine  of  hope  and  comfort.  As- 
suming that  at  least  as  many  have  saved  in 
other  directions,  as  those  who  have  purchased 
farms  with  their  savings,  we  have  at  least  two 


84     TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

millions  of  people  in  this  country  to-day  who 
are  comfortably  off,  who  would  have  been  with- 
out property  if  it  were  true  that  the  condition 
of  wage-workers  were  not  advancing. 

It  is  not  true  that  "the  poor  are  growing 
poorer."  So  far  from  true  is  it,  that  within  the 
last  half  century  there  has  been  a  proportion- 
ate gain  of  more  than  two  millions,  who  have 
advanced  out  of  the  condition  of  poverty  into 
that  of  comfort.  Of  course,  there  have  been 
vastly  more  than  two  millions  in  the  aggregate; 
but  these  two  millions  represent  the  net  gain 
over  and  above  the  comparative  increase  of  pop- 
ulation. 

A  pauper  class  there  always  will  be,  as  long 
as  there  are  thousands  of  people  who  prefer 
idleness  to  labor.  There  will  be  pauper  people 
as  long  as  there  are  pauper  dispositions.  A 
few  days  ago  there  was  an  advertisement  in  our 
papers  calling  for  hundreds  of  laborers.  While 
that  advertisement  was  still  standing,  the  peo- 
ple in  the  neighborhood  where  I  live  were  vis- 
ited by  several  able-bodied  men,  who  were  not 
ashamed  to  beg  their  bread,  and  who  preferred 
that  way  of  getting  their  living  to  the  pick  and 
shovel.  As  long  as  thousands  are  afflicted  with 
such  a  pusilanimous  disposition,  there  will  be 
some  paupers  in  the  world.     No  scheme  of  di- 


THE  LABORER'S  FALLACY.        85 

viding  the  land  will  help  that  class.  They 
wouldn't  get  their  living  from  it  if  each  of  them 
had  an  amount  equal  to  all  of  the  land  of  the 
Dalrymple  farms.  There  are  other  thousands 
who  are  struggling  manfully  with  their  lot — 
who  are  working  hard  to  better  their  condition. 
And  it  is  my  privilege  to  say  to  them  that  all 
of  the  hope  which  comes  from  the  facts  at 
which  we  have  this  evening  looked  belongs  to 
them.  It  is  not  a  hopeless  case,  as  so  many 
teach.  Millions  have  succeeded  in  making  for 
themselves  and  their  little  ones  comfortable 
surroundings  in  this  life.  And  their  number 
is  proportionately  increasing  year  by  year. 
May  God  bless  them,  and  succeed  them  in  their 
efforts  of  honest  toil. 

I  can  tell  you  how  to  stop  pauperism  in  this 
country  in  just  four  words — "Stop  the  drink 
traffic."  Liquor  is  responsible  for  eight-ninths 
of  the  pauperism  in  America.  At  the  time  of 
the  last  census  (1880)  there  were  88,665  paupers 
in  this  country,  of  whom  6j ,06^  were  in  alms- 
houses, and  22,961  were  of  foreign  birth.  In 
that  same  year  eight  hundred  millions  of  dollars 
were  spent  for  drink  in  this  country — enough 
to  give  every  pauper  in  the  land  a  fortune.  It 
is  a  lamentable  fact  that  the  poorer  classes — 
those  whose  condition  is  already  on  the  verge 


86     TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

of  poverty — are  contributing  more  than  their 
share  to  this  vast  sum.  No  scheme  of  any  uto- 
pist  or  sociahst  will  ever  be  able  to  relieve  the 
poverty  of  this  class,  until  he  finds  some  way 
to  check  the  sale  and  drinking  of  intoxicating 
liquors.  "It  is  impossible — absolutely  impos- 
sible''— said  the  good  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  "to 
do  anything  to  permanently  or  considerably  re- 
lieve this  poverty,  until  we  have  got  rid  of  the 
curse  of  drink."  According  to  the  recently 
issued  report  of  the  Commissioner  of  the  Na- 
tional Labor  Bureau,  there  were  998,839  un- 
employed men  in  this  country  during  the  year 
1885.  In  round  numbers,  we  will  say  a  million 
unemployed  men.  That  represents  a  great 
loss  of  wages.  It  represents  a  loss  on  the  part 
of  hundreds  of  thousands  who  do  not  drink  a 
drop,  and  of  others,  doubtless,  who  do.  But 
do  you  know,  dear  friends,  if  those  who  drink 
among  laboring  men  would  stop  this  habit — 
worse  than  useless — they  could  support  every 
idle  workman  in  the  country  on  better  wages 
than  he  ever  earned,  and  have  a  fine  sum  left 
over? 

If  I  could  speak  to  every  workingman  of  this 
country  to-night  who  indulges  in  drink,  I 
would  say:  "Why  throw  away  this  money? 
Why  not  save  it  for   the  good  of  your  family? 


THE  LABORER'S  FALLACY.        87 

Save  it,  and  you  may  soon  join  the  number  of 
those  who  are  stepping  tip  from  conditions  of 
poverty  into  conditions  of  comfort.  "  Say  that 
one-half  of  the  vast  sum  which  I  have  men- 
tioned is  spent  by  laboring  men  for  drink;  why 
pay  it  to  the  saloon-keepers?  Why  not  save 
it,  brothers?  Four  hundred  millions  of  dollars 
would  make  a  good  many  homes  comfortable 
which  are  now  miserable;  would  buy  a  good 
many  farms  for  those  who  are  not  now  able  to 
own  an  acre.  And  every  man  who  drinks  is 
contributing  his  share  to  the  eight  hundred 
millions  which  feed  the  saloon-keepers  and  rob 
the  families  of  the  drinkers.  Thus  have  I  tried 
to  point  out  our  perils  and  our  hopes.  I  have 
shown  you  that,  in  spite  of  all  adverse  circum- 
stances, there  is  hope.  There  is  hope  for  the 
toiler  who  works  with  brave  heart  and  willing 
purpose.  There  is  hope  for  the  laboring  masses, 
and  there  is  hope,  therefore,  for  the  future  of 
our  country.  The  ship  which  was  launched 
more  than  a  century  ago  is  not  going  down  on 
the  breakers  of  pauperism  or  plutocracy.  God, 
the  great  and  just  God,  guides  us  over  this 
great  and  wide  sea  which  no  ship  ever  sailed 
before. 

"Thou,  too,  sail  on,  O  ship  of  State! 
Sail  on,  O  Union,  strong  and  great; 


88  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

Humanity,  with  all  its  fears, 

With  all  the  hopes  of  coming  years, 

Is  hanging  breathless  on  thy  fate. 

4f  «  *  «  • 

Our  hearts,  our  hopes,  are  all  with  thee; 

Our  hearts,  our  hopes,  our  prayers,  our  tears, 

Our  faith  triumphant  o'er  our  fears, 

Are  all  with  thee — are  all  with  thee." 


CHAPTER  V. 


THE   laborer's    HOPE. 

The  Italian  patriot  Mazzini  uttered  a  great 
truth  when  he  said,  "It  is  around  the  standard 
of  duty  rather  than  the  standard  of  self-inter- 
est that  men  must  rally  to  win  the  rights  of 
man, "  And  here  also  we  have  a  reflected  ray 
from  Him  who  first  taught  the  world  that  we 
should  love  our  neighbors  as  ourselves.  In 
this  spirit  alone  can  we  hope  to  solve  the  social 
problems  of  to-day,  or  advance  the  standard 
of  progress  beyond  the  point  where  we  find  it. 

In  times  of  heat  and  anger  the  spirit  of  self- 
interest  is  too  apt  to  control.  Each  party  or 
class  selfishly  demands  what  will  advance  its 
own  interest  regardless  of  the  interests  of  so- 
ciety at  large.  Such  a  spirit  over-reaches  it- 
self. It  is  sure  in  the  end  to  destroy  the  very 
good  which  it  seeks;  like  the  man  in  the  tale, 
who,  not  content  with  fabulous  gifts  of  jewels 
demanded  admission  to  the  cave  whence  they 
came,  and  found  when  too  late  that  he  was  a 
prisoner  in  that  cave.      His  own  greed  and  sel- 


90     TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

fishness  were  to  blame.  Let  us  hope  that  the 
laboring  men  of  this  country  are  not  about  to 
repeat  that  man's  folly.  A  thousand  jewels 
have  been  given  to  every  American  citizen. 
He  has  the  priceless  jewel  of  liberty — liberty 
of  mind,  heart  and  body.  He  may  think  as  he 
pleases;  kneel  at  any  altar  or  none  as  he  pre- 
fers; he  may  go  where  and  work  for  whom  he 
likes,  or  work  for  no  one.  If  he  has  burdens 
which  seem  uujust  and  oppressive,  the  open 
remedy  is  at  hand;  he  may  demand  such  laws 
as  will  remedy  the  evil  of  which  he  complains. 
Laws  are  not  in  this  country  like  those  of  the 
Medes  and  Persians,  which  change  not.  They 
can  be  changed  whenever  the  people  will. 
They  are  constantly  in  process  of  changing 
from  year  to  year  to  year  to  conform  to  the 
growing  needs  of  our  great  republic.  When- 
ever the  laboring  man  can  get  his  brothers  to 
agree  on  such  changes  as  will  remedy  his  ills, 
those  changes  will  be  made;  for  in  this  coun- 
try we  live  under  laws  which  are  made  by  those 
who  are  in  a  large  degree  elected  by  ballots  of 
laboring  men.  The  American  laborer  has  his 
remedy  by  lawful  means.  If  laboring  men  are 
not  yet  sufficiently  united  among  themselves 
as  to  what  they  want;  or  if  they  are  unable  to 
carry  a  majority  of  the  people  for  their  schemes, 


THE  LABORER'S  HOPE.  91 

it  is  certain  that  the  time  has  not  come  when 
any  such  scheme  would  be  just.  Will  the  la- 
lioring  men  of  this  country  throw  down  this 
load  of  a  freeman's  jewels  and  by  force  or  law- 
lessness shut  themselves  up  in  a  cave?  What 
if  agitation  and  force  should  so  paralyze  trade 
and  industry  that  every  factory  should  be 
closed?  Would  that  help  to  feed  the  hungry 
and  clothe  the  naked?  What  if  the  result  of 
labor  organization  should  be  so  pleasing  to 
those  who  now  control  it,  that  they  should  en- 
large its  scope  and  tighten  the  reins  of  its 
power  until  the  individual  laborer  should  be 
nothing  and  the  organization  everything?  One 
of  the  profoundest  students  of  American  insti- 
tutions, DeTrequeville,  said  truly  that  "there 
is  no  tyranny  like  the  tyranny  of  a  democracy 
when  once  its  current  sets  in  that  direction." 
Let  no  association  of  working  men  be  the  first 
to  experience  and  illustrate,  in  this  free  coun- 
try, the  force  of  that  truth.  The  entire  nation 
is  jealous  of  any  power  which  threatens  a  tyran- 
ny over  the  individual,  or  which  undertakes  to 
dominate  over  classes.  The  laboring  man  has 
it  in  his  power  to  remedy  every  real  grievance  by 
legislation,  provided  he  does  not,  by  rashness 
destroy  the  confidence  of  those  whose  alliance 
he  must  have  to  accomplish  his  purpose. 


92     TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

In  the  opinion  of  agitators  and  utopists,  who 
are  now  seeking  to  arouse  a  war  of  classes  in 
this  country,  no  one  is  a  friend  of  the  laboring 
man  who  refuses  to  accept  the  wild  notions  of 
reform  which  they  propose.  The  honest  la- 
boring man  has  no  foe  so  deadly  as  these  same 
men,  who  are  trying  to  arouse  him  to  deeds  of 
riot  which  would  destroy  business  confidence 
and  inevitably  decrease  his  wages.  When  busi- 
ness confidence  fails,  labor  is  depressed  and  the 
hungry  increased  in  like  degree,  every  time. 

I  have  hitherto  uttered  my  belief  that  labor 
is  destined  to  advance  into  more  favorable  con- 
ditions than  it  now  enjoys.  The  time  will  come 
when  the  price  paid  to  the  poor  cloak-makers 
of  New  York,  for  the  making  of  a  cloak,  will 
bear  a  fairer  relation  to  the  price  for  which  it 
is  sold.  The  time  is  coming  when  more  of  the 
results  of  labor  will  go  to  the  cottages  of  the 
poor  and  less  to  the  palaces  of  the  rich  in  pro- 
portion. But  no  human  being  nor  any  num- 
ber of  them  have  power  to  produce  such 
changes  suddenly.  Meanwhile  it  is  worth  our 
consideration  that  every  laboring  man  in  this 
country  to-day  has  already  certain  rights  and 
opportunities  which  would  seem  like  the  vision 
of  Mirza  to  the  day  laborers  of  England  or 
Germany. 


THE  LABORER'S  HOPE.  93 

A  few  days  ago,  in  company  with  a  citizen 
of  this  place,  I  had  occasion  to  visit  the  PoHsh 
quarter  of  Milwaukee.  We  were  riding  with 
a  gentleman  of  that  city.  He  called  our  atten- 
tion to  the  comfortable  cottages  occupied  by 
most  of  those  people;  to  the  fact  that  while 
nearly  all  are  day  laborers  and  while  many  have 
not  been  long  in  this  country,  yet  a  large  num- 
ber own  the  houses  in  which  they  live.  On 
our  return  ride,  near  the  dividing  line  between 
the  Polish  and  American  quarters,  he  asked  us 
to  notice  two  rows  of  comfortable  tenements, 
one  on  either  side.  The  aggregate  value  of 
either  row  of  houses  with  the  grounds,  could 
not  be  less  than  $10,000,  and  might  be  consid- 
erably greater.  Each  row  of  those  buildings 
belongs  to  a  Polander.  One  of  those  Polanders 
came  to  this  country  thirteen  years  and  the 
other  ten  years  ago.  Neither  had  anything 
when  he  came.  They  began  as  day  laborers, 
working  at  anything  they  could  find  to  do. 
One  of  them  began  only  two  or  three  years 
after  the  great  panic  when  times  were  certainly 
as  hard  as  they  are  now.  But  somehow  he 
managed  by  economy  to  save  each  year  a  little. 
By  wise  management  and  foresight  the  little 
has  become  a  great  deal. 


94  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

I  was  well  acquainted  with  a  carpenter  in  the 
city  of  Cleveland,  who  was  a  laboring  man  to 
the  day  of  his  death.  A  long  time  he  worked 
for  small  wages.  But  his  wife  helped  him  to 
economize  and  they  saved  a  little,  bought  a  lot 
and  built  a  modest  cottage  on  one  of  the  re- 
tired streets  of  the  city.  When  they  reached 
a  point  where  they  had  no  rent  to  pay  it  came 
easier  to  save.  With  the  savings  they  bought 
more  building  materials  and  by  working  extra 
hours  they  soon  had  a  large  and  more  preten- 
tious house  adjoining  the  cottage.  They  no 
sooner  had  the  large  house  ready  for  a  tenant 
than  a  tenant  was  ready  for  the  house,  and 
moved  in,  paying  that  laboring  man  $300  a 
year  for  the  privilege  of  living  in  his  house. 
So  it  happened  that  the  poor  laboring  man 
blossomed  into  a  "bloated  landlord!"  But  he 
was  not  content  with  that.  He  kept  on  hard 
at  work  earning  day  wages  and  saving  a  little 
at  a  time  and  presently  a  third  house  of  his 
own  was  finished  and  a  second  tenant  moved 
in.  At  the  time  of  his  death  that  man  owned 
many  thousand  dollars  worth  of  Cleveland  real 
estate,  although  he  never  ceased  to  work  at 
his  trade  till  death  called  for  him.  I  have  seen 
him  more  than  once  returning  from  his  day's 
work  with  his  laborin"-  suit  on  and  his  dinner 


THE  LABORER'S  HOPE.  95 

pail  on  his  arm,  while  his  tenants  sat,  clad  in 
broadcloth  and  smoking  their  Havanas.  No 
one  would  have  guessed  which  was  the  "bloat- 
ed landlord,"  and  which  the  poor  oppressed 
tenants. 

Very  recently  I  met,  in  his  own  neat  and 
comfortable  home,  a  Holland  tailor,  who  came 
to  America  four  years  ago.  For  more  than 
twenty  years  he  had  worked  hard  at  his  trade 
in  his  native  land,  and,  by  dint  of  careful  and 
scrimping  economy,  he  had  managed  to  lay  up 
money  sufficient  to  pay  the  passage  of  himself 
and  family  across  the  sea,  and  to  one  of  the  in- 
land cities  of  Michigan.  When  he  arrived  there 
he  could  not  speak  a  word  of  English,  and  had 
only  $ioo  in  money  left.  But  he  went  to  work 
with  a  will.  He  worked,  of  course,  at  a  great 
disadvantage  among  people  of  a  strange  tongue; 
but  to-day,  after  four  years,  he  is  the  owner  of 
his  home,  and  is  daily  advancing  toward  a  com- 
petency for  his  old  age.  Both  he  and  his  wife 
told  me  in  broken  speech,  but  with  looks  of 
gratitude  which  needed  no  interpreting,  that 
they  were  thankful  to  be  "in  this  good  coun- 
try;" that  they  have  already  accomplished  what 
they  could  not  have  done  in  a  lifetime  of  toil 
across  the  sea,  and  that  they  had  lived  in  greater 
comfort,  had  better  clothing   and    food,   than 


96  TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

they  could  ever  have  had  there.  There,  as  they 
told  me,  meat  was  a  luxury  only  for  the  rich; 
here  "even  a  poor  tailor  could  have  meat  on  his 
table  at  least  once  a  day."  His  home,  which 
has  cost  him  $1,200 — $900  of  which  is  paid, 
and  the  rest  of  which  will  be  by  the  end  of  this 
year — would  sell  for  $1,400  or  $1,500  to-day. 
Thus  already  the  savings  of  his  thrift  and  econ- 
omy are  increasing  in  value,  and  should  that 
man  live  ten  or  twelve  years  he  will  probably 
be  a  considerable  property-holder  in  that  city. 
He  has  wrought  no  miracles.  But  the  oppor- 
tunities of  this  free  country  have  wrought  for 
him  what  would  seem  a  miracle  to  his  old  neigh- 
bors in  Holland.  It  goes  without  saying  that 
he  has  not  spent  any  of  his  earnings  in  the  sa- 
loons. He  is  a  happy,  contented  laborer. 
Other  men,  whom  I  know  in  the  same  city, 
have  received  just  as  large  pay;  have  helped  to 
support  the  saloon-keepers;  have  not  supported 
their  families  as  well  as  he;  have  not  laid  up  a 
dollar,  and  are  always  cursing  the  "hard  luck" 
and  "grinding  capitalists"  who  "keep  them 
poor." 

I  have  not  mentioned  these  cases  of  prosper- 
ity among  laboring  men  because  they  are  rare. 
You  all  know  that  they  are  not.  Some  of  the 
wealthiest  men  in  this  city  began  as  day-labor- 


THE  LABORER'S  HOPE.  97- 

ers,  working  for  smaller  pay  than  the  men  who 
are  now  demanding  an  increase  and  blocking 
the  wheels  of  commerce  because  they  do  not 
receive  it.  You  all  know  full  well  that  until 
recent  years  there  were  very  few  fortunes  in 
this  country  whose  owners  did  not  work  hard 
for  them  in  their  younger  days.  But  I  men- 
tion them  to  ask  a  few  questions.  Were  those 
men  doing  right  or  wrong  when  they  were  hard 
at  work  earning  days'  wages?  "Right,"'  I  hear 
you  say;  "we  believe  in  honest  toil."  Were 
they  doing  right  or  wrong  when  they  managed 
to  lay  up  a  few  dollars,  and  so  get  a  start  toward 
a  competence?  "Right, "you  say;  "we believe 
in  compensation  for  honest  industry. "  Were 
they  doing  right  or  wrong  when  they  took  their 
carefully  hoarded  dollars  and  bought  a  piece  of 
land?  "Right,"  you  say;  "we  believe  in  a 
home  for  the  laboring  man. "  Were  the  first 
two  right  when  they  built  each  a  second  house 
on  his  lot,  to  accommodate  some  one  else  who 
had  not  succeeded  in  laying  up  sufficient  to 
build  his  own?  "Right,"  you  say;  "a  man 
who  has  begun  so  honestly  and  continued  so 
perseveringly  deserves  to  prosper,  as  the  fruit 
of  his  industry." 

Who  can  say  that  either  of  these  men  has 
done  any  wrong  against  any  class  of  society? 


98     TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

Have  they  not  rather,  by  honesty,  care  and  in- 
dustry, done  their  very  best  to  contribute  to  the 
general  prosperity  of  the  entire  community? 
Yet,  starting  as  laboring  men,  and  as  a  result 
of  their  labor,  they  became  both  capitahsts  and 
landlords. 

Is  there  any  one  who  would  destroy  the 
power  which  those  men  had  to  better  their  con- 
dition? Every  one  of  them  was  a  laboring 
man.  How  would  any  agitator  go  at  it  to  con- 
demn the  accumulation  of  wealth  without  also 
condemning  just  such  prosperity  of  labor?  To 
condemn  them  would  blight  the  hope  of  every 
laboring  man  in  this  country;  for,  however 
poor  a  man  may  be  to-day,  he  looks  forward 
to  the  time  when  he  may  become  the  owner  of 
his  home — the  master  of  one  spot  on  earth 
where  he  may  rear  his  family  and  plant  the 
standard  of  his  independence,  saying,  "My 
house  is  my  castle.  "  Take  away  that  hope  and 
you  would  paralyze  the  right  arm  of  every  toiler 
who  is  working  for  dear  ones  and  a  golden  day 
to  come.  The  thousands  of  laboring  men  who 
are  giving  willing  ear  to  the  wretched  talk  of 
socialists,  going  to  those  socialistic  meetings, 
as  many  of  them  do,  from  their  own  cottages 
and  comfortable  homes,  do  not  stop  to  consider 
what  this    denunciation   of  property  and  this 


THE  LABORER'S  HOPE.  99 

abuse  of  capital  means.  They  do  not  consider 
that  the  destruction  of  property  rights  would 
carry  down  the  cottages  of  the  poor,  as  surely 
as  the  palaces  of  the  rich.  You  could  not  in- 
validate the  titles  of  one  without  destroying 
the  foundations  of  all.  Such  an  overthrow 
would  destroy  the  poor  man's  hope  that  he  may, 
by  careful  savings  and  industry,  rise  to  a  con- 
dition of  greater  comfort-,  for  be  sure,  when 
you  have  once  admitted  into  the  world  the  prin- 
ciple of  forcibly  distributing  to  some  the  prop- 
erty which  others,  by  careful  industry,  have 
earned,  it  will  rule  the  world  with  a  rod  of  iron. 
Ricardo's  "iron  law  of  wages"  would  be  nothing 
in  comparison  with  it.  When  such  a  principle 
becomes  law,  farewell  to  incentives  to  industry. 
None  would  be  willing  to  earn  more  than  a 
bare  subsistence,  and  no  one  would  save  any- 
thing; for  the  amount  saved,  however  small, 
would  tempt  the  rapacity  of  those  who  desire 
to  divide  without  earning.  How  many  honest 
laboring  men  in  this  free  country  desire  to  be 
bound  by  such  cast-iron  conditions?  Who 
would  desire  to  be  in  a  state  or  society  in  which 
none  could  hope  to  better  their  condition  by 
industry  and  economy?  Who  would  desire  to 
change  the  condition  of  the  laboring  man  as  it 
is  to  day,  in  which  all  may  hope  for  and  many 


100         TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

attain  to  something  better,  for  one  in  which  all 
security  should  cease,  and  all  hope  for  improve- 
ment should  be  lost?  When  the  doctrine  of 
Rossean,  that  "every  man  has  a  natural  right  to 
what  he  needs,"  and  that  of  Proudhon,  that 
"the  man  who  has  more  than  he  needs  is  a  thief," 
are  generally  accepted,  then  farewell  to  any  so- 
ciety; farewell  to  the  happiness  of  the  laborer's 
cottage,  and  the  security  of  his  hearthstone;  for 
there  will  always  be  sure  to  be  some  one  who 
will  "need"  something  which  he  has  in  that  cot- 
tage. In  that  golden  day  of  the  socialist's 
dream,  when  palaces  have  been  leveled  and 
vested  rights  have  been  destroyed,  a  cottage 
will  be  wealth  enough  to  tempt  the  rapacity 
of  some  one,  and  the  unsatisfied  anarchist  will 
still  be  crying  out:  "Down  with  the  fortunate! 
Down  with  the  cottage!  What  business  has 
any  man  to  own  a  cottage  and  lord  it  over  his 
fellows?" 

When  Joseph  Baboeuf,  the  father  of  modern 
anarchism  (who  discarded  his  Christian  name 
because,  as  he  said,  he  had  no  wish  for  Joseph's 
virtues)  saw  that  his  views,  if  accepted,  would 
produce  such  results,  he  was  ready  with  his  an- 
swer: "Let  progress  cease,  and  civilization 
decay!  Perish  the  arts!  Let  everything  return 
to  chaos,  but  give  us  equality, "     Such  is  the 


THE  LABORER'S  HOrE.  101 

bold  scheme  of  men  who  have  no  honorable 
record  to  preserve,  and  no  future  to  hope  for. 
They  desire  and  are  seeking  to  draw  the  labor- 
ers of  this  country  into  their  plans.  They  wish 
to  secure  the  laborer's  help  in  destroying  the 
only  hope  for  advancement  that  the  honest 
laborer  has.  They  want  to  reduce  this  country 
to  a  state  of  insecurity  like  that  which  rules  in 
Arabia  to-day,  where  all  men  arc  wanderers, 
and  no  one  knows  but  he  will  be  plundered  by 
the  next  band  he  meets.  Only  thieves  and  cut- 
throats could  hope  to  profit  by  a  state  of  soci- 
ety in  which  the  rights  of  property  should  be 
abolished. 

I  have  not  said  that  all  laborers  could  do  as 
the  three  did  whom  I  have  mentioned.  Of 
course,  that  would  be  impossible.  Each  en- 
counters his  own  difficulties,  and  some  have 
obstacles  in  sickness  and  low  wages  which  con- 
tinually keep  them  down.  But  I  am  now  speak- 
ing of  the  fact  that,  all  along,  the  workingman 
in  this  country  has  enjoyed,  and  still  enjoys, 
privileges  which  his  brother  of  any  European 
nation  would  hail  as  the  day-star  of  a  new  and 
exalted  era.  Go  tell  some  peasant  on  the  Al- 
pine slopes,  who  returns  after  a  day's  toil  with 
a  little  armful  of  hay — the  sole  result  of  his 
labor;  go  and  tell  some  English  miner,  whose 


102         TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

weary  hours  of  darkness  and  toil  yield  him  less 
than  one-half  as  much  as  is  paid  in  American 
mines,  and  no  hope  for  the  future  but  more  toil 
and  deeper  darkness;  go  and  tell  some  Russian 
peasant,  whose  life  of  semi-slavery  knows  noth- 
ing better  for  to-day  than  a  crust  of  black 
bread  and  a  bowl  of  black  soup,  and  nothing 
brighter  for  the  future  than  fear  and  trembling 
beneath  the  rod  of  an  imperial  despot;  go  and 
tell  some  Italian  padrone,  who  creeps  forth  from 
his  miserable  hovel,  after  a  meal  which  would 
be  spurned  by  the  pigs  in  your  barn-yard,  to 
labor  in  the  marble-quarries,  sixteen  hours  each 
day,  for  barely  enough  compensation  to  pur- 
chase the  pauper  food  which  lengthens  out  the 
dreary  span  of  his  misery — go  to  such  men,  ye 
sons  of  American  toil,  and  tell  them  that  you 
live  in  a  country  where  labor  still  has  some  re- 
forms to  accomplish,  but  where  it  is  possible 
for  a  laboring  man  to  purchase  a  home,  and 
where  hundreds  of  thousands  are  to-day  living 
in  comfortable  homes  which  they  have  bought 
with  the  savings  of  their  industry;  tell  them 
that  thousands  of  those  who  are  now  accounted 
wealthy  men  began  their  rise  to  competency 
from  the  shops  and  fields  of  toil;  tell  them  that 
you  know  of  some  men  who  came  hither,  fresh 
from  the  oppressed  peasantry  of  Europe,  with- 


THE  LABORER'S  HOPE.  103 

out  a  dollar  after  they  landed,  who,  in  ten  or 
twelve  years  in  this  country,  are  able  to  own 
whole  rows  of  houses  in  one  of  the  most  beau- 
tiful cities  on  this  continent;  tell  them  that  you 
live  in  a  land  where  laboring  men  are  permit- 
ted to  hold  conventions  and  pass  resoluiions 
without  being  dogged  by  the  police;  tell  them 
that,  if  resolutions  are  not  heeded,  it  is  your 
privilege  to  nominate  and  elect  whom  you  will 
to  make  your  laws  and  redress  your  grievances; 
tell  them  all  this,  and  you  will  see  their  look  of 
bewildered  amazement  as  they  ask,  "What  do 
I  hear?     Am  I  awake,  or  am  I  dreaming?" 

I  do  not  think  that  all  men  could  do  as  the 
few  successful  ones  whom  I  have  cited;  but  I 
do  believe  that  thousands,  who  now  spend 
much  of  their  earnings  fooHshly,  could  ac- 
complish some  such  thing.  The  difference 
lies  at  the  beginning,  and  that  difference  often 
consists,  not  in  the  greater  or  less  wages,  but 
in  the  ability  to  economize,  which  some  exer- 
cise and  others  do  not.  For  it  is  a  matter  of 
daily  observation  that  men  whose  wages  are 
precisely  the  same,  and  whose  families  have  the 
same  number  to  feed  and  clothe,  get  on  very 
differently.  One  of  them  lays  up  nothing,  and 
thinks  that  society  is  his  enemy;  the  other  toils 
on,  and,  after  a  few  years,  has  a  few  hundred 


104         TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

dollars  of  savings — capital — which  becomes  his 
friend,  and  henceforth  helps  him  to  earn.  It  is 
no  secret  how  the  rest  of  the  great  success 
comes.  The  trouble  lies  in  the  struggle  to  ac- 
cumulate the  first  small  savings. 

It  is  not  uncommon  for  the  day-laborer  of 
the  city,  who  is  receiving  from  $1.50  to  $2.00 
a  day,  to  look  with  jealousy  upon  the  comfort- 
able homes  and  surroundings  of  many  farmers. 
There  are  thousands  of  wealthy  farmers  in  this 
country  to-day  whose  pioneer  life  was  marked 
by  such  privations  as  few  in  the  cities  know 
anything  about.  Alone  they  made  their  way 
into  the  heart  of  the  forest,  or  far  out  upon 
the  prairies,  where  for  years  they  had  almost 
no  privileges  of  civilization,  and  only  the  plain- 
est fare.  Attend  their  pioneer  meetings  and 
you  will  hear  stories  of  log-cabins  in  the  forest 
and  dugouts  on  the  prairies;  of  days  when 
wheat  flour  was  an  unheard-of  luxury,  and 
when  a  bear-hunt  supplied  the  only  relief  from 
corn-meal  and  potatoes.  When  they  were  sick 
they  were  compelled  to  doctor  each  other  back 
to  health  or  die.  When  they  remembered  the 
comfortable  dinners  in  New  York  or  New  En- 
gland, they  had  only  their  memories  and  corn- 
bread  to  comfort  them.  They  worked  as  long 
as  sunlight  showed  them  where  the  trees  needed 


THE  LABORER'S  HOPE.  105 

felling,  where  the  sod  must  be  turned,  or  the 
weeds  annihilated.  They  didn't  dream  of  a 
time  when  labor  could  hope  to  support  its  sons 
on  a  system  of  eight  hours  a  day.  They  would 
have  starved  to  death  on  such  a  system,  and 
raised  no  rebellion  because  it  was  impractica- 
ble. There  were  no  strikes  among  the  pioneer 
farmers,  who  got  their  wealth  by  working  six- 
teen hours  a  day,  and  who  are  now  envied  or 
hated  for  their  prosperity  by  men  who  refuse 
to  work  more  than  eight.  In  those  pioneer 
days  they  came  West  for  a  purpose.  That 
purpose  could  be  accomplished  only  by  a  long 
course  of  privation.  This  free  government  gave 
them  certain  privileges;  the  rest  they  had  to 
win  by  clear  grit.  They  won;  and  when  they 
won  they  had  comfortable  homes  and  something 
to  educate  the  children  with. 

My  sympathies  are  with  the  toiling  thousands 
of  earth  every  time.  But  I  have  no  sympathy 
with  those  who  would  tyrannize  over  a  portion 
of  their  toiling  brethren,  in  the  name  of  labor 
reform.  There  is  one  little  passage  in  General 
Grant's  life  for  which  I  admire  him  as  much  as 
for  any  other.  It  illustrates  the  manly  inde- 
pendence of  the  man.  When  he  was  in  England, 
where  coats  of  arms  are  regular  parts  of  aristo- 
cratic furniture,  he  was  one   day  asked  what 


106         TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

device  he  would  choose  for  his  crest.  He  in- 
stantly replied,  "A  pair  of  arms  with  sleeves 
rolled  to  the  elbow!" 

I  recall  the  days  when  the  fires  on  the  forge, 
twice  each  day  lighted  up  the  old  shop  in  which 
I  worked  not  eight  hours  only  but  from  six  in 
the  morning  till  seven  or  eight  at  night.  Strikes 
had  not  become  fashionable  in  those  days.  We 
were  of  course  very  ignorant;  but  we  did  not 
dream  that  we  were  being  oppressed,  because 
we  saw  fit  to  work  a  little  longer  and  earn  a 
little  more.  Nor  do  I  now  think  that  I  was 
oppressed  by  those  who  had  at  that  time  risen 
above  the  necessity  of  working  as  I  was  com- 
pelled to  work.  On  the  contrary  I  thank  God 
to-night,  as  I  have  many  times  thanked  him, 
for  the  privileges  of  this  free  country,  by  which 
it  was  possible  for  a  poor  boy  to  have  the  ben- 
efits of  a  college  education.  None  shall  excel 
me  in  earnest  desire  that  everything  may  be 
done  to  better  the  condition  of  the  laboring 
man,  and  according  to  my  ability  none  shall 
excel  me  in  effort  to  that  end;  but  while  I  live 
and  have  a  spark  of  gratitude  in  my  heart,  I 
will  not  be  silent  when  the  free  flag  of  my 
country  is  traduced  and  its  privileges  slandered. 
There  are  other  countries  which  do  as  much  for 
the  rich  as  this  country  does  and  more.    There 


THE  LABORER'S  HOPE.  107 

are  countries  which  bestow  upon  them  titles  of 
knighthood  and  nobihty,  the  power  to  retain 
their  wealth  in  their  families  forever,  by  the 
law  of  entail,  and  the  power  to  lord  it  over 
their  fellows  by  the  decrees  of  aristocratic  par- 
liaments. But  there  is  no  country  under  the 
face  of  heaven  which  gives  to  its  laboring  mill- 
ions so  fair  a  chance  as  this.  This  fact  is  per- 
fectly known,  yet  imported  socialists  whose 
names  are  too  foul  to  mention,  are  trying  to 
teach  the  laboring  man  to  hate  his  country.  It 
would  be  only  fair  to  send  these  human  vultures 
to  some  place  where,  with  people  of  their  own 
sort,  they  could  show  the  world  what  sort  of  a 
country  they  could  produce.  Robinson  Crusoe's 
island  would  be  a  good  place  for  them.  What! 
Tell  the  laboring  men  of  this  free  country  to 
hate  its  flag,  and  to  look  for  an  opportunity  to 
overturn  its  free  institutions?  Times  have 
changed  within  my  memory  if  the  laboring 
men  of  this  country  are  ready  in  any  great 
numbers  to  listen  to  such  talk.  It  is  but  little 
more  than  a  score  of  years  ago  that  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  the  laboring  men  of  this  coun- 
try heard  its  call  in  the  hour  of  distress.  Then 
forth  from  plow,  anvil  and  factory  loom  they 
sprang,  a  mighty  army,  saying: 

"We  are  coming  Father  Abraham, 
Three  hundred  thousand  more." 


108        TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

They  went  to  fight  the  battles  of  freedom 
against  slavery,  of  free  labor  against  slave  la- 
bor, and  they  won.  Surely  this  magnificent 
loyalty  of  the  laboring  men  of  this  land,  will 
not  permit  itself  to  be  insulted  by  listening  to 
or  in  any  way  encouraging  the  appeals  of  men 
who  would  destroy  the  government.  I  believe 
the  time  is  near  at  hand  when  thousands  of 
laborers,  who  have  been  silent,  whose  senti- 
ments have  not  been  expressed  by  noisy  dem- 
onstrations of  socialism,  will  make  all  evil 
agitators  feel  the  force  of  their  opposition. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


MIND   AND   MUSCLE — CO-LABORERS. 

Several  years  ago  I  stood  on  one  of  the 
stupendous  arches  of  that  magnificent  viaduct 
which  crosses  the  river  at  the  falls  of  St.  An- 
thony. Some  of  the  arches  were  complete; 
others  were  only  begun  while  the  slender  frame 
work  of  wood  had  already  traced  the  thought 
of  the  engineer  in  the  air.  Last  June  I  rode 
in  a  car  of  one  of  the  numerous  trains  between 
the  cities  as  it  rolled  over  that  completed  struc- 
ture. The  thought  of  the  builder  had  turned 
to  solid  stone — as  firm  beneath  our  rumbling 
wheels  as  the  earth  itself.  Then  I  fell  to  think- 
ing of  that  law  which  combines  matter  and 
muscle  and  mind  to  make  values.  How  much 
would  that  bridge  be  worth,  to-day,  if  it  did 
not  represent  thought  as  well  as  labor,  brain  as 
well  as  brawn?  How  many  cars  would  those 
arches  support  if  they  were  not  constructed 
upon  the  most  exact  scientific  principles?  On 
the  one  hand  you  have  one  or  two  thotisand 
men  who  have  bared  their  arms  to  the  work  of 


110         TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

blasting  the  rock  from  the  quarry,  and  shaping 
it  block  by  block  for  its  position  in  the  struc- 
ture. On  the  other  you  have  the  thought  of 
one  master  mind,  which  marked  out  the  shape 
and  position  of  every  block  before  a  blow  was 
struck.  Now,  friends,  let  us  look  at  this  illus- 
tration a  minute,  for  we  have  here,  in  small 
compass,  all  of  the  elements  of  that  vexed 
question  of  values.  We  will  say  nothing  now 
of  the  engineering  skill  required  to  manage 
great  quarries;  nothing  of  the  thought  as  well 
as  labor  required  to  build  and  run  the  railroads 
over  which  the  blocks  of  stone  must  be  trans- 
ported; but  we  will  suppose  the  stone  for  that 
structure  to  be  quarried  and  transported,  and 
here  now  it  lies  in  vast  blocks  ready  for  the 
chisel  of  the  stone  cutter.  Here,  too,  are  the 
stone  cutters  with  their  chisels,  and  the  masons 
with  their  trowels  and  stone-hammers.  The 
labor  element  is  all  on  hand  ready  to  build  a 
bridge  and  the  material  is  here  ready  to  be 
built.  But  suppose  that  these  hundreds  of 
laborers  find  after  they  get  together,  that  they 
have  no  plans,  nor  scientific  drafts  from  which 
to  work.  You  know  that  these  laborers  would 
be  compelled  to  be  idle.  They  could  not  build 
a  bridge  without  the  plans  drawn  by  an  en- 
gineer.     Is  it  true  then   that  "all  wealth  comes 


MIND  AND  MUSCLE.  Ill 

from  labor?"  When  that  bridge  is  completed 
will  the  whole  value  of  it  be  due  to  labor,  as 
Mr.  George  and  Karl  Marx  teach?  Do  you 
not  know  that  the  value  of  every  stone  depends 
as  much  on  the  thought  of  the  architect  as  on 
the  chisel  of  the  stone-cutter?  Suppose  two 
cutters:  one  shapes  his  work  exactly  to  the 
plan;  angle  and  curve  are  exact.  The  other 
does  not;  he  thinks  he  knows  better  and  takes 
an  angle  and  curvature  of  his  own.  At  night 
one  man's  work  is  valuable;  the  other's  is  ab- 
solutely worthless.  There  are  as  many  hours' 
work  in  one  as  in  the  other;  and  if  it  were  true 
that  "all  wealth  comes  from  labor,"  one  man's 
work  would  be  worth  just  as  much  as  the 
other's.  But  we  all  know  full  well  that  there 
is  a  great  difference.  What  makes  it?  One 
man  added  to  his  work  the  genius  of  the  en- 
gineer's plan;  the  other  did  not;  hence  the  dif- 
ference in  value.  We  see  then  that  labor  does 
not  create  all  values.  Men  may  shout  them- 
selves hoarse  with  that  false  doctrine.  Thou- 
sands may  make  themselves  believe  it;  but  it 
will  not  be  true  any  the  more  for  that.  Genius 
and  leadership  contribute  their  share  to  values. 
In  many  cases  they  are  quite  as  essential  as 
labor.  The  stone  bridge  at  Minneapolis  or  the 
iron  bridge  at  St.  Louis  or  the  wire  bridge  at 


112         TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

Brooklyn,  could  neither  have  been  built  by  la- 
bor alone.  They  are  all  very  valuable  struc- 
tures and  a  large  part  of  the  value  in  every 
case  was  contributed  by  a  quality  which  can- 
not, by  any  proper  definition  be  called  "labor." 
To  return  to  our  illustration:  If  when  the  hun- 
dreds of  laborers  assembled  ready  to  begin 
their  work,  no  one  could  have  been  found  with 
the  skill  and  genius  of  a  civil  engineer,  to  draft 
the  plans  and  direct  the  work,  then  it  could 
not  have  been  done.  The  workmen  would 
have  been  compelled  to  disperse  without  an 
opportunity  to  earn,  what  otherwise  they  might. 
Their  wages  would  be  in  that  case  absolutely 
dependent  upon  leadership.  So  far  from  labor 
imparting  all  value  in  such  a  case,  leadership 
would  in  fact  add  to,  if  it  did  not  create,  the 
value  of  wages.  What  would  the  company 
pay  those  men  to  work  on  that  bridge  without 
apian?  Nothing.  Their  work  would  be  worth- 
less. But  the  moment  one  appears  with  the 
necessary  genius  and  skill  to  plan  and  direct 
their  labor,  it  commands  good  wages.  So  I 
say  the  laborers  who  wrought  on  that  bridge 
could  well  afford,  if  it  had  been  necessary,  to  pay 
the  man  who  could  plan  the  bridge  many  times 
as  much  as  any  one  of  them  received,  because 
their  ability  to  earn  many  thousand  dollars  all 
depended  on  his  ability  to  plan. 


MIND  AND  MUSCLE.  113 

Wouldn't  it  be  a  beautiful  thing  for  laboring 
men  if  socialists  should  succeed  in  leveling 
everything?  Wouldn't  it  help  laboring  men  if 
the  socialists  should  kill  off  the  civil  engineers 
and  architects,  whose  genius  plans  the  work 
which  keeps  them  busy?  They  are  among  the 
men  whom  socialists  would  attack.  They  are 
usually  men  whose  talent  has  commanded  high 
pay,  and  who  consequently,  as  a  rule,  have 
comfortable  homes  and  a  little  money  in  the 
bank  for  a  rainy  day.  In  the  language  of  so- 
cialism, "they  are  robbers." 

If  the  socialists,  like  Mr.  George,  should  at- 
tempt to  answer  by  saying  that  the  work  which 
a  civil  engineer  does  with  his  brain  is  labor, 
and  that  therefore  his  contribution  to  the  value 
of  the  bridge  is  no  exception  to  the  rule  that 
"all  value  comes  from  labor,"  I  should  say  to 
them,  "Such  an  answer  won't  do.  There  is 
such  a  thing  as  architectural  ability;  there  is 
such  a  thing  as  genius  or  talent  for  civil-engi- 
neering; and  it  is  from  this  impalpable  quality 
that  the  larger  part  of  the  value,  contributed 
by  engineering  or  architectural  work,  comes. 
There  are  some  who  might  spend  a  life-time 
and  master  all  the  mechanical  details,  without 
acquiring  the  spark  of  genius  which  can  con- 
ceive a  great  plan.     There  are  thousands  who 


114        TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

understand  the  principle  of  the  dome  as  well  as 
Michael  Angelo,  but  he  alone  conceived  the 
magnificent  plan  which  led  him,  when  first  the 
thought  of  St.  Peter's  dome  burst  upon  him,  to 
exclaim,  "I'll  hang  it  in  air!"  There  was  only- 
one  Angelo,  but  his  one  grand  thought  set 
thousands  of  laborers  to  work,  and  has  kept  an 
army  at  work  ever  since;  for  the  annual  re- 
pairs on  St.  Peter's  require  the  constant  serv- 
ices of  many  laborers.  There  was  only  one 
Sir  Christopher  Wren,  but  when  his  genius 
conceived  the  glory  of  St.  Paul's,  that  thought 
made  work  and  wages  for  the  thousands,  who 
changed  the  thought  into  pillar,  column,  pedi- 
ment and  dome.  Will  any  stone-cutter  be  fool- 
ish enough  to  deny  that  the  thought  of  Chris- 
topher Wren  gave  a  great  share  of  the  value  to 
St.  Paul's  Cathedral?  It  was  not  the  drafting 
and  planning.  I  am  not  now  referring  to  the 
mere  geometrical  details  which  many  were  com- 
petent to  work  out.  I  am  not  now  referring 
to  anything  which  can  be  called  "labor,"  but  to 
that  greatness  of  genius  which  made  it  possible 
for  the  great  thought  to  dawn  upon  his  mind. 
Without  that,  the  thousands  of  chisels  and  ham- 
mers would  never  have  been  set  to  work  on  St. 
Paul's.  St.  Paul's  never  could  have  been  built 
without  the  thought  of  Christopher  Wren,  any 


MIND  AND  MUSCLE.  115 

more  than  without  the  stone-cutters  and  ma- 
sons. Its  value  is  therefore  the  joint  product 
of  genius  and  labor — not  of  labor  alone. 

In  view  of  such  facts,  isn't  it  a  trifle  arrogant 
and  the  least  bit  shallow  for  the  economists  of 
socialism  to  claim  that  "all  wealth  is  created  by 
labor?"  Instead  of  the  world's  owing  every- 
thing to  labor,  docs  not  labor  owe  a  vast  deal 
to  the  wealth  of  human  genius 

Suppose  a  thousand  men —  opers,  we  will 
say — honest,  hard-working  men  and  excellent 
mechanics,  but  with  little  or  no  skill  for  com- 
bining, and  with  only  a  limited  knowledge  of 
the  way  in  which  stock,  when  ready,  should  be 
put  upon  the  market — suppose  them  to  work  a 
year  faithfully,  making  honest  barrels.  Who 
does  not  know  that  such  a  company  would 
surely  make  mistakes?  They  would  make  too 
many  of  this  sort  of  barrels,  and  too  few  of 
that.  They  would  overstock  the  market  in  one 
direction,  and  be  lacking  when  demand  arose 
in  another;  for  all  of  these  matters  require 
careful  study,  and  no  man  can  give  the  study 
which  such  matters  require  while  working  hard 
at  a  trade. 

Now,  suppose  another  company  of  a  thou- 
sand coopers,  no  more  capable  than  the  former* 
and  no  more  ready  to  work;  but  they  are  di- 


116         TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

rected  by  one  who  has  skill  and  executive  gen- 
ius. He  understands  the  markets,  and  he  can 
combine  the  efforts  of  all  the  workmen  to  the 
production  of  such  goods  as  the  market  re- 
quires. Does  any  man  in  his  senses  doubt  that 
the  product  of  the  latter  company  will  sell  for 
far  more  than  that  of  the  former?  Every  one 
knows  it  will.  Why?  One  company  has  done 
just  as  many  days'  work  as  the  other,  and  if  it 
is  true  that  "all  wealth  comes  from  labor,"  the 
work  of  one  ought  to  bring  just  as  much  as  that 
of  the  other.  Why  is  it,  then,  that  one  com- 
pany gets  more  for  its  product  than  the  other? 
I  will  tell  you:  It  is  because  one  company  have 
put  something  besides  labor  into  their  product; 
they  have  put  into  their  barrels  executive  abil- 
ity and  genius  for  leadership.  Without  that, 
their  barrels  would  have  been  worth  no  more 
than  those  of  the  other  company.  We  see, 
therefore,  in  barrels,  as  well  as  bridges  and 
cathedral-domes,  there  is  an  element  of  wealth 
which  does  not  come  from  labor.  It  is  not  true 
that  "all  wealth  comes  from  labor."  It  is  not 
true,  therefore,  that  "all  wealth  belongs  to  the 
laborer,"  as  socialists  claim,  and  as  every  labor- 
sheet  in  America  also  affirms.  If  everything 
were  to  be  leveled  to-morrow,  and  if  all  men 
were  reduced  to  an  exact  equality,  the  laboring 


MIND  AND  MUSCLE.  117 

men  themselves  would  be  obliged  to  create 
what  they  now  call  "privileged  classes."  We 
saw  that  this  was  just  the  thing  proposed 
by  Mr.  Gronlund.  After  everything  should 
be  leveled,  he  proposed  that  the  laborers 
should  elect  "  superintendents  "  and  "  over- 
seers" and  "bureau-chiefs."  Indeed!  And 
when  they  are  elected,  pray,  what  will  they  be 
but  another  set  of  "privileged  classes?"  Would 
not  their  position  excite  the  envy  of  men  like 
Baboeuf  and  Louis  Blanc,  who  cry,  "Down 
with  everything,  if  need  be,  but  give  us  equal- 
ity?" 

Suppose  everything  leveled  to-morrow,  and 
all  those  who  are  now  regarded  with  envy  to 
to  be  killed  off.  That  would  carry  off  most  of 
the  architects  and  civil  engineers  of  the  coun- 
try— probably  every  one  of  them.  Then  sup- 
pose a  company  of  laborers  to  say:  "Come, 
now,  we've  got  things  our  own  way;  let's  build 
a  railroad."  How  far  would  they  get?  Who 
would  produce  the  iron  for  them?  It  requires 
something  besides  muscle  to  manage  iron-mines 
and  blast-furnaces.  How  would  they  get  through 
the  first  mountain  they  came  to?  It  requires 
the  finest  ability  to  tunnel  a  mountain.  Labor 
could  never  do  it  alone.  The  thousand  laborers 
would  be  obliged  to  throw  down  their  shovels 


118    TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

and  wait  till  some  one  could  be  educated  to  the 
profession  of  an  engineer,  before  they  could 
ever  get  through  the  first  mountain.  And 
when  they  had  him  educated  and  ready  for 
work,  they  would  have  to  pay  him  much  larger 
wages  than  any  one  of  themselves  could  earn, 
because  his  instruments  would  cost  much  more 
than  theirs  and  because  his  training  would  cost 
very  much  more.  And  when  they  had  educated 
him  and  prepared  him  so  that  he  by  his  ability 
could  relieve  their  helplessness,  what  would 
they  have?  They  would  have  the  beginning 
of  a  "privileged  class;"  for  he  by  a  few  hours' 
work  could  plan  enough  work  to  keep  a  large 
company  busy.  And  before  they  know  it  they 
would  be  supporting  him,  in  a  way  which  would 
give  him  a  few  hours  of  leisure  each  day. 
Labor  itself  would  be  in  a  certain  sense  abso- 
lutely dependent  on  such. help  as  he  could  ren- 
der. And  in  order  to  get  it  they  would  be 
obliged  to  offer  inducements  sufficient  to  lead 
him  to  prepare  himself  by  long  years  of  study 
and  self-denial.  But  the  very  inducements 
which  they  would  offer  in  higher  wages  and  the 
like,  would  give  him  some  privileges  not  en- 
joyed by  most.  In  other  words  the  demands 
of  labor  itself  would  create  a  privileged  class. 
And  what  labor  would  do  under  such  circum- 


MIND  AND  MUSCLE.  119 

stances,  it  has  already  done,  throughout  the 
world.  What  would  the  iron-molder  do  with- 
out the  draftsman?  and  what  would  the  con- 
tractor or  the  carpenter  do  without  the  architect? 
The  thoughts  of  these  men,  are  the  very  pio- 
neers of  the  great  labor  operations  of  the  world 
to-day.  One  man  tJioiight  of  a  cable  beneath 
the  sea;  then  thousands  of  men  were  set  to 
work  to  execute  his  thought,  and  the  completed 
value  was  the  joint  product  of  the  thought  of 
the  thinker  and  the  blows  of  the  laborer.  An- 
other man  thought  of  a  mighty  railway  con- 
necting ocean  with  ocean — a  great  continental 
roadway.  Then  forthwith  thousands  of  labor- 
ers were  set  to  the  work  of  putting  that  thought 
into  "grades"  and  "fills"  and  "cuts;"  into  "ties" 
and  "tunnels"  and  "rails.  "  Presently  the  great 
railroad  was  done.  Millions  of  dollars  had 
been  paid  to  laborers,  which  never  would  have 
been  paid  to  them,  but  for  the  thought  of  those 
who  planned  the  railroad.  When  done  it  was 
the  joint  product  of  genius  and  labor.  And 
moreover  millions  of  dollars  are  paid  every 
year  to  laborers  who  work  in  running  the  trains 
on  that  road  which  never  would  have  been  paid 
them  but  for  that  thought  which  was  turned  by 
labor  into  a  railroad.  Is  it  true  that  "all  wealth 
comes  from  labor?"  No;  by  a  thousand  illus- 


120         TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

trations,  the  one  who  takes  trouble  to  think 
can  see  that  there  is  a  large  element  of  wealth 
which  comes  from  thought,  genius,  plan.  Ev- 
ery yard  of  cloth  from  the  loom;  every  bushel 
of  coal  from  the  mine;  every  scrap  of  iron 
from  the  foundry,  represents,  in  its  value,  these 
two  elements  which  I  have  mentioned. 

By  a  different  illustration  it  could  be  shown 
with  equal  clearness  that,  in  many  instances 
capital  imparts  value  to  certain  objects  which 
they  never  could  have  from  labor  alone.  But 
I  will  not  enter  upon  that  now.  My  object  has 
been  by  simple  and  clear  illustrations  to  show 
that  it  is  not  true  that  "all  w^ealth  comes  from 
labor. "  And  I  think  none  who  properly  con- 
sider such  illustrations  as  are  occurring  every 
day,  can  for  a  moment  honestly  think  that  "all 
wealth  is  created  by  labor. "  That  is  not  true. 
If  it  is  not  true,  it  will  do  nothing  but  harm  to 
teach  it.  No  permanent  good  can  come  to 
any  one  or  to  any  class  by  teaching  a  false- 
hood. The  laboring  man  himself  would  be 
the  first  to  suffer,  if  that  doctrine  should  be 
generally  accepted.  If  "all  wealth  is  created 
by  labor"  of  course  labor  would  have  no  need 
of  executive  ability  or  inventive  genius.  Sup- 
pose these  elements  to  be  banished  from  the 
factories  of  the  United  States  at  the  sounding 


MIND  AND  MUSCLE.  121 

of  the  whistle  to-morrow  morning?  How  long 
could  the  factories  be  kept  running?  How  long 
would  it  be  before  thousands  of  factories  would 
be  silent  as  the  grave-yard  and  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  operatives  out  of  employment? 
The  laboring  man  would  very  soon  find  that 
there  is  an  element  of  wealth  which  comes 
from  some  other  source  than  labor;  and  he 
would  find  first  of  all  that  the  value  of  his  own 
wages  depends  on  something  besides  his  labor. 
But  suppose  the  laboring  men  to  say,  "When 
we  had  dismissed  the  superintendents  who  are 
the  minions  of  capital,  we  would  elect  some 
one  of  our  own  number  for  superintendent." 
Very  well.  "A  rose  by  any  other  name  would 
smell  as  sweet."  You  would  still  have  super- 
intendents. And  in  the  end  of  such  a  scheme 
the  world  would  have  more  tyranny  than  it 
ever  dreamed  of  before.  The  civilized  world 
has  never  had  a  government  of  such  tyrannical 
central  power  as  the  socialists  themselves  pro- 
pose to  establish.  They  propose  to  have  the 
government  control  everything,  even  to  the 
kind  of  work  a  man  shall  do;  the  amount  of 
property  he  shall  own;  the  stores  where  he 
shall  buy  his  supplies  and  all  that.  What 
would  the  word  "liberty"  mean  in  such  a  gov- 
ernment as  that?  Where  was  there  ever  such  a 


122         TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

grinding  tyranny?  Where  was  there  ever  such 
a  set  of  absolute  despots  as  the  "bureau-chiefs" 
of  such  a  government  would  be?  Talk  about 
"equality"  under  such  a  government!  The  dif- 
ference of  power  between  Jay  Gould  and  one 
of  the  brakemen  in  his  employ  to-day  is  not 
one  half  as  great  as  the  difference  between  a 
common  laborer  and  a  "bureau-chief "  would 
be  under  the  proposed  system.  Jay  Gould  has 
no  power  to  compel  any  man  to  work  for  him; 
but  the  "bureau-chiefs"  would  have  just  that 
power.  Before  the  end  of  six  months  under 
such  a  government,  the  laboring  masses  of  this 
country  would  be  ready  to  say:  Give  us  back 
our  former  liberties  and  our  former  ills  if  that 
is  necessary,  but  let  us  escape  from  the  tyranny 
of  "bureau-chiefs."  Just  as  the  people  of 
France,  who  had  cut  off  the  head  of  Louis 
XVI  and  enacted  the  "reign  of  terror, "  were 
glad  to  take  refuge  in  the  arms  of  a  new  em- 
pire under  Napoleon  I,  so  the  socialists  of  to- 
day would  be  glad  in  a  few  months  to  get  away 
from  their  own  regime,  if  they  should  ever  be 
permitted  to  enact  it. 

A  second  theory  of  socialism  is  that  all  lands 
should  be  confiscated  by  the  government  and 
that  there  should  be  no  private  ownership  of 
land.     The  government,  so  the  socialists  say, 


MIND  AND  MUSCLE.  123 

should  periodically  re-distribute  the  land  ac- 
cording to  the  needs  of  families  and  individuals. 
If  the  government  would  only  do  this,  requir- 
ing all  taxes  to  be  paid  in  the  form  of  ground- 
rent,  that  would  be  a  panacea  for  all  of  the  ills 
of  pauperism  which  now  afflict  society.  That 
would  cure  all  of  the  labor  troubles.  For  pri- 
vate land-ownership  is  responsible  for  all  of  the 
objectionable  features  connected  with  vast  for- 
tunes and  corporate  monopolies.  So  teach 
Mr.  George,  Mr.  Hyndman  and  a  host  of  others 
who  follow  their  lead.  "Ground-rent;"  notice 
the  word.  That's  a  beautiful  word  to  propose 
to  make  universal  in  this  19th  century  isn't  it? 
Now  there  are  great  evils  connected  with  the 
loose  management  of  our  public  lands.  I  have 
already  pointed  some  of  them  out  in  a  former 
lecture.  These  evils  must  be  corrected.  An 
awakening  public  conscience  declares  they  shall 
be  corrected.  We  are  not  going  to  permit 
foreign  lords  and  noblemen  to  establish  their 
effete  tenant  system  on  our  soil.  The  "grand 
old  man"  of  England  has  dared  to  sound  the 
death-knell  of  that  system  in  Ireland.  All 
honor  to  the  noble  premier,  who  has  dared  to 
lift  his  voice  for  oppressed  Ireland.  All  honor 
to  Gladstone.  We  may  thank  God  that  we 
have  lived  to  see  this  day.     Nor  are  we  going 


124         TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

to  permit  any  class  of  men  much  longer  to  steal 
the  public  domain  by  the  million  acres,  under 
any  pretext.  No  false  claims  can  much  longer 
stand  against  the  rights  of  those  who  want  the 
land  for  homes,  and  are  ready  to  occupy  it  as 
actual  settlers.  These  evils  must  be  rebuked. 
But,  my  friends,  the  scheme  of  universal  con- 
fiscation, proposed  by  the  socialists,  would  not 
usher  in  the  millenium,  as  they  declare.  Have 
they  stopped  to  consider  how  utterly  we  would 
be  at  the  mercy  of  the  government  if  it  owned 
every  foot  of  land,  and  consequently  every  roof 
over  our  heads?  What  could  hinder  such  a 
government  from  being  very  tyrannical?  What 
a  tremendous,  centralized  power  that  would  be! 
The  ownership  of  land  implies  the  right  to  turn 
a  tenant  out  of  doors.  Suppose  hard  times, 
like  a  failure  of  crops,  should  make  it  impossi- 
ble for  thousands  to  pay  their  taxes,  or  "ground 
rents."  Along  comes  the  government  agent 
and  turns  them  out.  What  scheme  can  they 
find  for  paying  up,  and  so  being  restored  to 
their  homes?  They  would  be  a  kind  of  pris- 
oners to  the  government,  compelled  to  work 
under  its  orders  until  the  ground-rents  were 
paid.  It  would  be  morally  certain  that  thou- 
sands would  fail  to  pay  their  rents ;  for  it  is 
now,  as  it  ever  has  been   and  ever  will  be,  a 


MIND  AND  MUSCLE.  125 

fact,  in  the  present  order,  that  thousands  fail  to 
pay  their  debts.  What  would  the  land-owning 
government  do  with  its  delinquent  tenants?  It 
could  not  ignore  or  cancel  its  claim.  That  sys- 
tem would  be  ruinous  to  any  government  de- 
pending on  "ground-rents"  for  its  revenue.  It 
would  either  be  compelled  to  resort  to  the  most 
tyrannical  measures,  fastening  the  people  to  the 
soil  and  compelling  them  to  work  out  their 
rents,  or  it  would  be  compelled  to  evict  them 
on  a  scale  which  would  dwarf  all  the  evictions 
which  ever  made  Ireland  weep  and  her  children 
cry  for  bread.  Tell  me,  laboring  men,  do  we 
want  a  system  of  universal  landlordism  in  this 
country?  Has  the  history  of  landlordism  been 
so  happy  across  the  sea  that  we  wish  to  adopt 
it,  and  make  it  universal?  Has  the  word  "ten- 
ant" become  so  dear  to  the  masses  that  they 
desire,  by  universal  impulse,  to  enroll  them- 
selves as  tenants  for  life?  A  brighter  day  has 
already  dawned  on  Ireland — a  day  which,  in 
its  zenith,  will  see  the  dream  of  O'Connor  real- 
ized, and  which  will  make  good  the  boast  of 
O'Connell.  But  when  the  full  noon  of  that 
bright  day  comes.  Irishmen  will  no  longer  be 
"tenants."  They  will  be  the  owners  of  Irish 
soil.  Tell  me,  American  workingmen,  is  our 
millenium  to  be  ushered  in  by  making  the  gov- 


126         TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

ernment  an  overgrown  "landlord?"  And  are 
we  all  to  be  made  happy  by  wearing  the  name 
of  "tenants?"  Don't  believe  it.  Even  the  fas- 
cinating rhetoric  of  Henry  George  can't  hang 
flowers  enough  on  the  yoke  of  tenantry  to 
make  it  seem  beautiful  to  me.  What  England 
needs  to-day  is  not  to  make  the  government  a 
universal  landlord  in  place  of  the  many  land- 
lords, but  she  needs  some  scheme  whereby  the 
great  estates  may  be  divided  into  small  hold- 
ings. She  needs  to  abolish  her  law  of  entail 
and  hereditary  nobility.  She  needs  what  we 
have  in  this  free  country,  where  even  a  poor 
man,  by  care  and  frugality,  may  become  the 
owner  of  land.  The  instincts  of  freedom  are 
toward  individual  ownership  of  the  soil.  De- 
pend upon  it,  Mr.  George  and  Mr.  Hyndman, 
the  heart  of  humanity  is  not  beating  very 
warmly  toward  your  scheme  of  universal  gov- 
ernmental landlordism.  The  heart  of  humanity 
beats  with  the  heart  of  Ireland  to-day,  when 
she  says,  "Give  my  sons  a  chance  to  own  the 
soil  on  which  they  live!" 

But  there  is  no.  need  of  arguing  this  matter 
from  the  standpoint  of  abstract  right  or  econ- 
omic theory.  Why  not  look  at  a  great  and 
conspicuous  example  of  the  communal  land- 
system,  which  has  been  before  the  world  in  its 


MIND  AND  MUSCLE.  127 

present  form,  since  the  emancipation  of  Rus- 
sian serfs  in  i86i.  Why  doesn't  Mr.  George 
point  to  Russia  and  say  to  the  oppressed  labor- 
ing men  of  America,  "There,  fellow-toilers,  is 
a  bright  and  shining  example  of  the  working 
man's  paradise!  Behold  in  free  and  liberty  lov- 
ing Russia  a  land  where  the  poor  have  their 
rights  and  where  capital  never  grinds  the  face 
of  labor!"  Why  didn't  he  say  that!  What! 
Wouldn't  it  apply?  Is  not  Russia  free?  Can  it 
be  possible  that  the  poor  are  oppressed  there? 
What  do  I  hear?  Do  you  tell  me  that  "Russia 
is  the  synonym  of  despotism  in  all  the  world 
to-day?"  How  can  that  be,  when  she  has  in 
universal  practice  the  very  system  of  land-ten- 
ure which,  dreamers  are  telling  us,  would  cure 
all  of  our  poverty  and  trouble?  In  that  great 
empire  the  land  is  practically  owned  by  the 
government,  as  Henry  George  recommends. 
The  rural  population  dwell  in  communal  vil- 
lages and  the  land  is  re-apportioned  once  in 
fifteen  years.  If  a  man's  family  has  increased 
he  gets  more;  if  it  has  decreased,  he  gets  less 
accordingly.  The  people  of  .each  commune, 
or  village,  meet  and  determine  the  land  appor- 
tionment by  vote.  They  also  determine  by 
vote  when  the  plowing  shall  begin;  and  when 
the  seeding;  and  when  the  haying  and  harvest- 


128         TALKS  ON  THE  LABOR  TROUBLES. 

ing;  and  so  on  through  the  whole  round  of 
farm  operations.  No  man  dares  to  plow  his 
strip  of  ground  until  the  time  appointed  by- 
vote  of  the  commune.  The  individual  expresses 
his  will  by  voting  in  the  commune  and  then 
loses  his  individuality — a  fact  which  illustrates 
again  the  saying  of  DeTocqueville  that  "there 
is  no  tyranny  like  that  of  a  democracy,  when 
once  its  current  sets  in  that  direction."  But 
not  only  so.  A  land  system  like  that  of  Rus- 
sia makes  it  necessary  that  the  inhabitants  of 
each  commune  should  hold  together.  Hence 
no  man  can  change  his  residence  without  a  vote 
of  the  commune;  no  person  can  be  absent  even 
for  a  few  weeks,  without  consent  of  the  com- 
mune. If  he  goes  for  a  visit  to  St.  Petersburg 
or  Moscow,  he  must  report  once  in  so  often, 
and  the  commune  may  order  him  home  at 
pleasure — a  privilege  which  it  often  exercises, 
and  very  oppressively.  If  a  man  has  moved 
to  a  city  and  is  prospering,  his  prosperity  excites 
the  envy  of  his  old  neighbors  and  they  call  a 
meeting  of  the  commune  and  order  him  home. 
There  is  no  escaping  the  order  either.  All  of 
the  tremendous  police  power  of  Russia  is 
pledged  to  enforce  that  order.  The  police  pow- 
er of  an  absolute  despot  enforces  the  tyrannical 
decree  of  a  little  democracy!     Isn't  it  a  lovely 


MIND  AND  MUSCLE.  129 

scheme?  Just  the  thing  for  us  to  adopt  in  this 
country,  is  it  not?  I  haven't  time  to  display  all 
of  its  beauties  this  evening,  I  have  given  you 
a  glimpse  of  a  system  such  as  Mr.  George  tells 
us  would  cure  all  of  the  ills  of  society  and 
wipe  out  the  distinction  between  plutocrats  and 
proletarians.  It  would  wipe  out  pretty  much 
everything  that  an  American  working  man 
holds  dear.  Wouldn't  it?  Does  it  cure  all  the 
ills  of  the  poor  in  Russia?  Do  the  poor  never 
find  fault  with  the  government  there?  Russia 
is  the  very  center  of  Nihilism  to-day.  In  no 
other  country  on  earth  are  the  foes  of  organ- 
ized society  so  bitter,  so  determined  or  so  rad- 
ical in  their  schemes.  It  is  in  Russia  that  the 
ruler  of  the  empire  is  obliged  to  shut  himself 
up  within  the  walls  of  his  palace  and  guard 
every  door  with  double  ranks  of  soldiers  for 
fear  of  his  life.  "But,"  you  say,  "the  Czar  is 
a  despot;  our  ruler  is  not."  I  answer,  "None 
but  an  absolute  despot  could  ever  rule  over  a 
country  where  a  system  of  land-tenure  like  that 
of  Russia  prevails.  Pass  a  law  in  any  country 
that  the  government  shall  henceforth  own  the 
land  and  you  thereby  make  a  despot  of  the 
ruler  of  that  land.  Nothing  but  the  heart  of 
an  angel  would  keep  him  from  the  deeds  of  a 
tyrant,  for  his  position  would  carry  with  it  ty- 


130         t:ALKS  on  the  labor  TRv)lJBLES. 

rannical  power.  Nor  would  it  help  the  matter 
if  the  government  should  be  administered  by  a 
board  of  "bureau-chiefs."  The  history  of 
Athens  under  the  rule  of  The  Thirty  Tyrants, 
and  of  France  under  the  Directory,  shows  only 
too  well  that  many  rulers  may  concentrate 
their  purposes  into  one  purpose  of  despotic 
power. 

The  cure  for  existing  troubles  will  call  for 
great  wisdom.  No  one  living  may  be  wise 
enough  to  say  just  how  that  cure  will  be 
wrought — by  what  plan.  But  one  thing  we 
may  be  perfectly  certain  of.  It  will  not  come 
by  changing  the  government  of  this  country 
into  a  land-owning  despotism  like  that  of  Rus- 
sia. 

There  are  a  great  many  people  in  this  country 
who  prefer  America  to  Russia.  If  Mr.  George 
does  not  he  might  manage  a  colonizing  scheme 
for  those  who  prefer  the  Russian  plan.  He 
will  wait  a  great  while  before  he  succeeds  in 
making  another  Russia  out  of  this  free  country. 
We  are  not  yet  ready  to  part  with  that  grand 
national  anthem;  nor  with  the  facts  which  make 
it  dear: 

"My  Country  'tis  of  thee, 
Sweet  land  of  liberty, 

Of  thee  I  sing. 
Land  where  my  father  died! 


MIND  AND  MUSCLE  131 

Land  of  the  Pilgrim's  pride! 
From  every  mountain  side 
Let  freedom  ring! 

"My  native  country,  thee, 
Land  of  the  noble  free, 

Thy  name  I  love. 
1  love  thy  rocks  and  rills, 
Thy  w^oods  and  templed  hills, 
My  heart  with  rapture  thrills, 
Like  that  above. 

"Our  Father's  God,  to  thee, 
Author  of  liberty. 
To  thee  we  sing. 
Long  may  our  land  be  bright 
With  Freedom's  holy  light 
Protect  us  by  thy  might, 
Great  God,  our  King!" 


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HELPS    IN    BIBLE    STUDY. 

The  True  Tabernacle.  A  series  of  lectures  on  the  Jewish  Taber- 
nacle and  its  typical  signification.  By  George  C.  Needham  ; 
illustrated,  cloth,  neat,  75  cents. 

C>  H.  M's  Notes.  By  C.  H.  McIntosh.  Genesis,  75  cents  ;  Exo- 
dus, 75  cents  ;  Leviticus,  75  cents  ;  Numbers,  75  cents  ;  Deutero- 
nomy, 2  volumes,  each,  75  cents.     Complete  set,  in  box,  $4.50. 

The  notes  breathe  a  very  sweet  and  reverential  spirit,  and  the 
author  shows  wonderful  insight  into  tlie  heart  of  truth.— Evangelist. 

Mr.  D.  L.  Moody  says  of  these  books :  They  have  been  to  me  a 
very  key  to  the  Scriptures. 

Major  D.  W.  Whittle  says:  Under  God  they  have  blessed  me  more 
than  any  books,  outside  of  the  Bible  itself,  that  I  have  ever  read, 
and  have  led  me  to  a  love  of  the  Bible  that  is  proving  an  unfaiUng 
source  of  profit. 

Life  and  Times  of  David,  King  of  Israel;  or.  The  Life  of 
Faith  Exemplified.  By  C.  H.  M.  Third  edition,  revised,  i2mo, 
200  pp.     Cloth,  60  cents. 

The  Gospel  According  to  Moses,  as  seen  in  the  Tabernacle  and 
Its  Various  Services.  By  George  Rogers,  New  edition,  en- 
larged i6mo,  124  pp.     Paper,  50  cents;  cloth,  75  cents. 

This  work  is  specially  commended  as  a  most  striking  unfolding  of 
the  gospel  in  the  old  testament.    An  absorbingly  interesting  volume. 

No  preacher  or  teacher  should  be  ignorant  of  the  truth  which  this 
small  volume  very  simply  but  foi-cibly  enunciates.— T/ie  Record. 

Outline  of  tlie  Booths  of  the  Bible.  By  Rev.  J.  H.  Brookes, 
D.  D,  Invaluable  to  the  young  student  of  the  Bible  as  a  First 
Lessons  in  the  study  of  the  Bible.  180  pp.;  cloth,  50  cents;  paper 
covers,  25  cents. 

How  to  Study  the  Bible.  By  D.  L.  Moody.  A  valuable  little 
work  which  should  be  carefully  studied  by  all  who  desire  to  enjoy 
the  study  of  the  Book  of  books.  Cloth,  flexible,  15  cents;  paper, 
10  cents. 

Ruth,  the  Nloabitess;  or,  Gleanings  in  the  Book  of  Ruth.  By 
Henry  Moorehouse.  A  characteristic  series  of  Bible  readings, 
full  of  suggestions  and  instruction.  Neat  l6mo,  paper  covers, 
20  cents;  cloth,  gilt  stamped,  40  cents. 

Contains  many  fresh  and  original  remarks,  all  tending  to  practical 
usefulness;  a  capital  bit  of  commenting  on  a  favorite  book.— Spu?'- 
geon's  Sword  and  Trowel. 

Bible  Readings.  By  Henry  Moorehouse.  A  series  of  eleven  ser- 
mons of  comment  and  exposition,  by  one  pre-eminently  the  man 
of  one  book — an  incessant,  intense,  powerful  student  of  the  Bible. 
Neat  i6mo,  paper  covers,  30  cents;  cloth,  gilt  stamped,  60  cents. 

The  Date  of  Our  Gospels.  A  critical  argument  and  examination 
of  evidences,  particularly  regarding  their  authenticity  and  author- 
ship. By  Samuel  Ives  Curtiss,  D.  D.,  Union  Park  Theological 
Seminary,  Chicago.  Square  i6mo,  neat,  flexible  cloth,  50  cents; 
paper  edition,  25  cents. 

The  argument  is  winnowed  of  superfluous  words,  and  presents  a 
luminous  and  brief  case.— New  York  Independent. 

CHICAGO:  F.  H.  BEVELL,  148  d;  150  MADISON  ST. 
% 


HELPS    IN    BI3LE    STUDY. 

Current  Discussions  in  Tlieology.  By  the  Professors  of  Chicago 
Theological  Seminary.  Vol.  I,  cloth,  i2mo,  248  pp.,  $1.00.  Vol. 
II,  328  pp.,  cloth,  $1.50,     Vol.  Ill,  360  pp.,  $1.50. 

There  is  nothing  in  our  language  of  this  liind.  The  American 
student  has  had  to  choose  between  the  exhaustive  and  unremitting 
labors  which  are  the  price  of  first-hand  knowledge,  and  reviews 
which  rarely  fail  of  being  colored  with  partiality  or  prejudice.  The 
volume  before  us  is  a  helpful,  fair  and  trustworthy  statement  of  the 
present  position  and  recent  movements  of  theology.— T/ie  Independ- 
ent. 

It  may  be  safely  said  that  from  no  one  book  in  the  English  lan- 
guage can  ministers  gather  so  much  recent  information  concerning 
the  topics  treated.— Prcshnterian  Witness. 

A  New  Catechism.  By  Rev.  J.  T.  Hyde.  A  manual  of  instruction 
for  students  and  other  thoughtful  inquirers.     Cloth,  i2mo,  $1.00. 

Short  Talks  to  Young  Christians  on  the  Evidences  of  Chris- 
tianity. By  Rev.  C.  O.  Brown.  Cloth,  neat,  i68  pp.,  50  cents; 
paper,  30  cents. 

Books  that  are  really  useful  on  the  evidences  of  Christianity  could 
almost  be  counted  on  one's  flngei-s.  One  which  is  singled  out  from  a 
host  of  others  by  its  plain  straight-forward  sense  is  Short  Talks  to 
Young  Christians  on  the  Evidences,  by  Rev.  C.  O.  Brown.  This  little 
work  is  systematic  without  being  technical,  chatty  without  being 
needlessly  diffuse,  and  it  is  written  in  a  style  suitable  for  the  reading 
of  elder  youth.— Sunday  School  Times. 

Practical  and  helpful,  just  the  thing  to  put  into  the  hands  of  the 
recent  convert.    They  will  richly  repay  perusal.— interior. 

The  Life  of  Christ.  By  Rev.  James  Stalker,  M.  A.  A  new  edi- 
tion. Introduction  by  Rev.  George  C.  Lorimer,  D.  D.  166 
pp.,  neat,  cloth,  60  cents. 

This  work  is  in  ti-uth  a  '^Multum  in  Parvo,"  containing  within  small 
compass  a  vast  amount  of  most  helpful  teachiiig,  so  admirably 
arranged  that  the  ^'eader  gathers  with  remarkable  definiteness  the 
whole  revealed  rcc jrd  of  the  life-work  of  our  Lord  in  a  nutshell  of 
space  and  with  a  minimum  of  study. 

Christ  and  the  Scriptures.  By  Rev.  Adolph  Saphir.  Cloth, 
i6mo,  neat,  75  cents. 

To  all  disciples  of  Jesus  this  work  commends  itself  at  once  by  its 
grasp  of  truth,  its  insight,  the  life  in  it,  and  its  spiritual  force.— Cftris- 
tian  Work. 

In  thece  days  of  doubt  and  hypercriticism  such  a  volume  breath- 
ing a  cyirit  of  earnest  devotion,  lifting  the  mind  to  a  better  concep- 
tion of  the  immcasurall^  worth  of  the  Person  and  the  Word,  and 
written  too,  by  a  sen  of  Israr ',  cannot  but  be  welcome  and  helpful. 

Clifton  Springs  Bible  Readings.  Containing  the  Bible  Reading, 
and  addresses  given  at  the  Conference  of  Believers  at  Clifton 
Springs,  N.  Y.,  by  Messrs.  Brookes,  Erdman.  Whittle,  Needham, 
Parsons,  Clark,  Marvin  and  others.  Square  i6mo,  144  pp.,  cloth, 
fine,  50  cents;  paper  covers,  25  cents. 


CHICAGO:  F.  H.  REVELL,  US  &  ISO  MADISON  ST. 


HELPS    IN    CHRISTIAN    WORK. 

Children's  Meetings  and  How  to  Conduct  Them.  By  Lucy 
J.  Rider  and  Nellie  M.  Carman.  Introduction  by  Rev.  J.  H. 
Vincent,  D.  D.  Contains  contributions  from  over  forty  well- 
known  workers  among  children,  and  gives  the  cream  of  their 
experience.  The  outline  lessons  (over  sixty  in  number)  diagrams, 
and  music  will  especially  commend  it  to  the  thoughtful  teacher. 
208  pp.,  cloth,  $1.00  net. 

The  volume  will  be  heartily  welcomed  by  many  having  this  most 
Important  part  of  the  religious  instruction  of  the  young  in  hand.— 
Zion's  Herald. 

Secret  Power ;  or,  the  Secret  of  Success  in  Christian  Life  and  Chris- 
tian Work.  By  D.  L.  Moody.  Fifty-fifth  thousand.  i2mo  vol- 
ume, 116  pp.,  rich  gilt  and  black  stamp,  cloth,  60  cents;  cheap 
edition,  paper  cover,  30  cents. 

Every  page  is  full  of  stimulating  thought  for  Christian  workers.— 
Christian  Commonivealth. 

It  is  a  good  statement  of  the  secret  of  success  in  Christian  Life,  by 
one  who  has  some  claim  to  speak  on  such  a  theme.— T?i6  Outlook. 

This  series  of  earnest  and  solemn  addresses  bear  throughout  that 
stamp  of  honest,  eager  earnestness,  which  is  so  striking  a  character- 
istic of  the  writer's  labors  as  a  preacher.— Clerical  Wor-Ul. 

Thus  Saith  the  Lord.  Compiled  by  Major  D.  W.  Whittle.  134 
pp.,  cloth,  flexible,  50  cents. 

This  little  work  is  a  hand-book  for  the  Christian  worker — a 
manual  of  texts  collected  upon  the  leading  subjects  necessarily 
treated  in  evangelistic  and  other  Christian  efforts,  especially  in 
personal  work. 

How  to  Conduct  inquiry  Meetings.  By  D.  L.  Moody,  and 
The  Use  of  the  Bible  in  Inquiry  Meetings.    By   D.   W. 

Whittle.     40  pages  and  cover.     Price  15  cents. 

The  Work  of  Preaching  Christ.  By  Bishop  Charles  Pettitt 
McIlvaine.  a  revised  edition  of  an  important  little  work. 
Paper  covers,  15  cents. 

The  Prayer  Meeting  and  Its  Improvement.  By  Rev.  Lewis 
O.  Thompson,  with  introduction  by  Rev.  A.  E.  Kittredge,  D. 
D,     Sixth  edition,  revised.     i2nio,  256  pp.,  gi.25. 

A  valuable,  because  a  very  suggestive  book.— S.  r.  Times. 

*  *  *  This  is  so  good  a  book  that  we  wish  we  jould  atford  to  givc 
a  copy  of  it  to  every  young  minister.  Revive  vour  prayer  meetings 
and  the  churches  will  be  revived.  Mr.  Thompson  says' some  capital 
things  in  a  telling  manner,  and,  as  his  pages  ar^:  fu.i  of  fir^  and  gun- 
powder, we  ho  e  certain  old,  worn  ou'  thing=  among  us  will  be 
exploded,  and  good  things  set  on  flre.  A  brother  who  has  this  book 
handy  will  be  helped  to  lead  livel5'  meetings,  nducting  them  in 
varied  ways,  and  expatiating  on  different  t<  pics,  so  as  0  keep  up 
freshness  and  avoid  monotony  and  dullness.-  C.  H.  Spuraeon. 

Revivals;  Their  Place  and  Power.  By  Rev.  Herrick  JoHNSON,  D. 
D.     Cloth,  flexible,  25  cents. 

An  admirable  discussion  of  the  subject.— Interior, 

We  know  of  no  publication  that  covers  the  ground  so  briefly  and 

satisfactorily.— BauimorePresbyterto)!. 

Dr.  Johnson's  experience  has  quaUfied  him  to  speak  upon  this 

suhject.— Independent. 

CHICAGO:  F.  H.  BEFELL,  US  &  150  MADISON  8T. 


HELPS    IN    CHRISTIAN    WORK. 

To  the  Work!    To  the  Work!    By  D.  L.  Moody.     Exhortations  to 
Christians.     Paper  covers,  30  cents;  cloth,  gilt  dies,  60  cents. 

This  new  work  by  Mr  Moody  is  in  the  line  of  his  most  successful 
efforts,  that  of  stirring- Christians  to  active,  personal,  aggressive  woik 
for  the  Master.  Mr.  Moody  has  frequently  been  heard  to  say  that  it 
was  much  better  to  set  100  men  to  work  than  to  do  the  work  of  ;00 
men.  This  little  volume  will,  we  confidently  believe,  be  a  means  of 
inspiring  not  hundreds  but  thousands  to  more  efficient  effort  in  Chris- 
tian life. 


HELPS    FOR    ENQUIRERS. 


Life,  Warfare  and  Victory.  By  Maj.  D.  W.  Whittle.  124  pp., 
cloth,  neat,  60  cents;  paper,  30  cents. 

This  book  has  been  prepared  in  the  midst  of  evangelistic  work,  to 
meet  the  wish  often  expressed  to  the  writer— that  instruction  given 
in  Bible  readings  to  j'oung  converts  might  be  made  availal>le 
for  their  more  careful  study  and  permanent  use.— Extjxict  from 
Preface. 

The  Way  to  Cod  and  How  to  Find  It.  By  D.L.Moody.  Fifty- 
fifth  thousand.  A  book  for  the  inquirer  and  Christian  worker. 
Cloth,  rich  black  and  gold  stamp,  60  cents;  paper,  tinted  covers, 
30  cents. 

Very  earnest  and  powerful,  abounding  in  apt  illustrations,  striking 
thoughts,  and  helpful,  encouraging  words.  This  book  is  written  in 
the  same  plain,  simple  r.nd  pointed  style  that  lends  such  force  to  his 
spoken  woi-ds.  The  volume  should  tind  many  readers.  Those  that 
buy  it  will  not  be  disappointed.— Cap^it<t  National. 

The  way  of  salvation  is  made  as  clear  as  simple  language  and  forci- 
ble, pertinent  illustration  can  make  it.  In  two  features  it  is  equal  to 
anything  that  Mr.  Moody  has  pi  jduced— in  close  adherence  to  the 
Wf^rd  of  God,  and  in  profound  earnestness— while  in  simplicity, 
directness  of  appeal  and  originality  it  is  superior.  It  is  a  great  matter 
to  senil  such  a  work,  so  full  of  Christ,  all  over  the  churches,  where  it 
may,  by  the  work  of  the  Spirit,  arrest  the  careless  and  move  the  un- 
godly.—Li(<?;eron  Observer. 

The  Way  and  the  Word.  By  D.  L.  Moody.  Forty-fifth  thousand. 
Paper,  15  cents;  cloth,  25  cents. 

This  little  work  contains  a  very  clear  statement  on  the  important 
subject  Regeneratio7i,  to  which  is  added  Mr.  Moody's  valuable 
hints  on  Bil)le  reading.  Mr.  Moody  has  used  this  book  by  the 
thousand,  placing  them  in  the  hands  of  young  converts  at  the  close 
of  his  meetings. 

Grace  and  Truth  Under  Twelve  Different  Aspects.    By  W. 

P.  Mackay,  M.  a.  Forty-eighth  thousand  of  American  edition. 
The  English  edition  has  reached  a  sale  of  over  two  hundred 
thousand,  besides  being  translated  into  German,  Spanish,  Swed- 
ish, Arabic,  Italian,  Dutch,  Gaelic  and  Welsh.  i2mo,  282  pp., 
paper,  35  cents;  cloth,  fine,  75  cents. 

Mr.  D.  L.  Moody  says  of  this  work:  I  know  of  no  book  in  print 
better  adapted  to  aid  in  the  work  of  him  who  would  be  a  ^vinner  of 
souls,  or  to  place  in  the  hands  of  the  unconverted. 

CHICAGO:  F.  H.  ME  FELL,  US  d;  ISO  MADISON  ST. 


HELPS    FOR    ENQUIRERS. 

My  Inquiry  Meeting;  or,  Plain  Truths  for  Anxious  Souls.  By  RoB 
ERT  Boyd,  D.  D.  Being  the  experience  of  a  pastor  during  man- 
years  of  personal  dealing  with  anxious  and  careless  souls.  64  pp 
15  cents. 

For  simplicity,  clearness  and,  force  of  statement,  we  have  met 
with  nothing  that  equals  this  little  volume.  We  can  think  of  no  bet- 
ter service  a  pastor  could  render  to  Sunday-school  teachers,  and 
other  guides  of  souls,  than  to  secure  their  reading  of  these  pages. 
Nor  cculd  inquirers  have  any  better  help  in  their  search  for  truth.— 
The  Ijitet-ior. 

Clad  Tidings.  By  Robert  Boyd,  D.  D,  A  book  for  inquirers. 
i2mo,  100  pp.,  cloth,  neat,  50  cents;  cheap  edition,  for  circula- 
tion, 25  cents. 

This  book  has  been  used  largely  in  connection  with  the  great 
revival  meetings  both  in  Great  Britain  and  this  land. 

The  Soul  and  Its  Difficulties.  By  H,  W.  Soltau.  Paper,  108 
pp.,  8  cents. 

How  to  be  Saved;  or,  the  Sinner  Directed  to  the  Saviour.  By  J.  H. 
Brookes,  D,  D.     120  pp.,  paper  cover,  25  cents;  cloth,  50  cents. 

Cod's  Way  of  Salvation.  By  Alexander  Marshall.  A  brief 
statement  of  the  Way  of  Life,  with  answers  to  popular  objections. 
Each  brief  page  complete  in  itself,  and  containing  a  sermon  in  a 
nutshell.     48  pages  and  covers,  5  cents.     Per  hundred,  $2.50, 

Doubts  Removed.  By  Cesar  Malan,  D.  D.  Paper  covers,  5 
cents;  per  dozen,  50  cents. 

It  contains  the  clearest  statements  and  illustrations  on  the  subject 
treated  we  have  ever  read. 

Welcome  to  Jesus.  By  Rev.  C.  II.  Spurgeox.  A  series  of  4  page 
tracts,  with  first  page  in  attractive  illuminated  designs,  etc.  Four 
different  series,  each  containing  32  assorted.  Price  per  pack- 
age, 25  cents.     Four  different  packets  issued,  Nos.  i,  2,  3  and  4. 


POPULAR    WORKS    FOR    ALL    CLASSES. 


Prevailing  Prayer:  What  Hinders  It?  By  D.  L.  Moody.  Cloth 
uniform  with  To  the  Work  !  Heaven,  etc.  Cloth,  60  cents;  paper 
covers,  30  cents. 

An  earnest  and  solemn  work,  full  of  helpful  hints  on  the  aids 
and  hindrances  to  prevailing  prayer. 

This  great  sub.lect  has  been  the  theme  of  apostles  and  prophets, 
and  of  all  good  men  in  all  ages  of  the  world ;  and  my  desire  in  sending 
forth  this  little  volume  is  to  encourage  God's  children  to  seek  by 
prayer  "to  move  the  arm  that  moves  the  vf^orld."— Extract  from 
Preface. 

Full  Assurance  of  Faith.  Being  some  Thoughts  on  Christian  Con- 
fidence.    By  D.  L.  Moody.     Paper  Covers,  15  cts,;  cloth,  25  cts. 

CHICAGO:  F.  H.  REVELL,  148  dt  150  MADISON  8T. 


POPULAR    WORKS    FOR    ALL    CLASSES. 

Heaven;  Where  It  Is;  Its  Inhabitants;  and  How  to  Get  There.  By  D. 
L.  Moody.  Eighty-eighth  thousand.  Tinted  covers,  30  cents; 
cloth,  60  cents. 

While  adapted  to  the  humble  capacity,  it  will  command  the  atten- 
tion of  the  mature  and  thoughtful.— JVanonaJ  Preshytcrian. 

Mr.  Moody's  unfaltering  faith  and  rugged  enthusiasm  are  mani- 
fested on  every  -page. —Christian  Advocate. 

Eminently  scriptural,  earnest  and  impressive,  will  be  welcomed  by 
thousands.— Ziou's  Herald. 

Charactei-ized  by  his  apt,  homely  illustrations  and  not  a  few  pithy 
anecdotes,  such  as  few  can  equal.— r?ic  Advance. 

Twelve  Select  Sermons.  By  D.  L.  Moody,  iioth  thousand. 
This  volume  contains  those  special  sermons,  which  have  appeared 
to  be  most  useful,  and  under  which  there  have  been  the  greatest 
results.     Paper  covers^  30  cents;  cloth,  neat,  60  cents. 

Carefully  revised  by  Mr.  Moody,  they  present  a  volume  of  choice 
and  striking  addresses,  sure  to  command  a  large  sale. 

With  the  effect  of  these  addresses  when  spoken,  the  whole  land  is 
acquainted,  and  now  that  they  are  written,  they  will  tend  to  keep  in 
force  the  impressions  they  have  already  vaside.— Methodist. 

Mr.  Moody's  happy  style,  abounding  in  striking  anecdote  and 
illustration,  make  it  a  most  readable  and  convincing  volume.— T/ie 
^Yatchman. 

Full  of  earnest  enthusiasm  which  characterizes  everything  Mr. 
Moody  does,  and  will  be  read  with  vateve&t.— Detroit  Free  Press. 

Daniel,  the  Prophet.  An  amplification  and  extension  of  Mr.  Moody's 
various  lectures  on  the  Life  of  Daniel.  Paper  covers,  20  cents; 
cloth,  40  cents. 

A  small  book,  but  big  as  regards  the  ti-uth  it  contains.  Every 
worker  in  the  Lord's  vineyard  would  be  helped  by  reading  it.— Rail- 
way Signal. 

Birth-Day  Memorial  Text-Book.  A  handsome  little  volume  with 
a  short  text  for  every  day  in  the  year,  with  blank  space  opposite 
for  autographs.  Especially  attractive  for  children.  32mo,  cloth, 
black  and  gold  stamp,  25  cents;  per  dozen,  $2.50. 

The  Practice  of  the  Presence  of  Cod.  By  "Brother  Law- 
rence." Being  a  small  collection  of  remarkable  letters  and  con- 
versations of  a  monk.     64  pp.,  24mo,  paper  cover,   10  cents  ;  per 

dozen,  75  cents. 

Envelope  Series  of  Tracts.    By  H.  W.  S.,  from  "The  Christian's 
Secret  of  a  Happy  Life,"  comprising  the  following: 
How  to  Enter  into  the  Life.  Faith:  What  it  is. 

Dithculties  Concerning  Consecration.      Is  God  in  Everything? 
Difficulties  Concerning  Guidance.  The  Joy  of  Obedience, 

Difficulties  Concerning  Faith.  Practical  Results. 

Sold  only  in  packets  of  one  dozen  copies.  May  be  had  either 
assorted  or  all  of  the  same  kind.     Price,  per  packet,  20  cents. 

They  will  form  an  excellent  collection  of  tracts  for  distribution 
by  those  who  wish  their  friends  to  share  the  "Life  that  is  hid  with 
Christ." 

CHICAGO:  F.  H.  BEVELL,  US  (&  li,0  MADISON  S2'. 

7 


POPULAR    WORKS    FOR    ALL    CLASSES. 

The  Scarlet  Line.  A  most  suggestive  tract  upon  Joshua  II  and  VI, 
showing  the  close  connection  between  the  type  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  the  Antitype  of  the  New.  36  pp.  and  cover,  5  cents ; 
per  hundred,  $3.00. 

Words  of  Worth,  from  the  Chicago  Christian  Convention.  A  verba- 
tim report  of  the  addresses  before  the  Convention  of  October,  1882. 

i2mo,  134  pp.,  paper,  25  cents. 

The  addresses  bv  such  men  as  Rev.  Marcus  Rainsford,  Rev.  Charles 
Sp'jrg-eon,  Dr.  W.  P.  Mackay,  Rev.  A.  T.  Pierson,  D.  D.  and  others, 
will  be  welcomed  by  many. 

The  Ministry  of  Healing;  or,  Miracles  of  Cure  in  all  Ages.  By 
Rev.  A.  J.  Gordon,  D.  U.  Third  edition,  i2mo,  fine  cloth,  250 
pp.,  $1.25. 

Proofs  of  the  practice  of  healing'  by  the  prayer  of  faith  gathered 
from  all  ages,  with  well  attested  instances  from  Augustine,  Luther, 
Baxter,  Bengel,  Irving-,  Erskine,  Christlieb  and  others. 

The  history  of  the  doctrine  as  held  by  Waldenses,  Moravians, 
Covenanters,  Huguenots,  Friends,  Baptists,  Methodists,  etc.  A  full 
account  of  the  recent  exercise  of  the  ministrv  of  healing  through 
faith,  by  Dorothea  Trudell,  Samliel  Zeller,  Pastor  Blumhardt,  Pastor 
Rein,  Pastor  Stockmayer,  Dr.  Cullis,  and  others.  With  all  this  is 
joined  an  extended  exaniijiatiou  of  the  subject  In  the  light  of  Scrip- 
tiu'e,  church  history,  theology  and  experience. 

In  Christ;  or.  The  Believer's  Union  with  His  Lord.  By  Rev,  A.  J. 
Gordon,  D.  D.     i2mo,  fine  cloth,  210  pages,  $1.00. 

We  do  not  remember  since  Thomas  a  Kempls  abook  so  thoroughly 
imbued  with  great  personal  love  to  Christ.  It  is  evidently  the  happy 
result  of  hours  of  high  communion  with  him.— Boston.  Courier. 

Th©  Two-Fold  Life;  or  Christ's  Work  for  Us,  and  Christ's  Work  in 
Us.     By   Rev.   A.   J.    Gordon,   D.   D.     i2mo,  fine   cloth,  285 

pages,  $1.25. 

This  is  a  powerful  and  timely  defence  of  Cliristian  doctrine,  experi- 
ence and  practice;  of  experience  resulting  from  sound  doctrine,  and 
of  practice  resulting  from  heart-felt  experience.  It  is  not  contro- 
versial, but  a  li%ang  testimony  to  the  renovating  power  of  the  faith 
once  delivered  to  the  saints.  *  *  *  Its  perusal  will  amply  repay 
the  reader  who  wishes  to  become  a  full-grown  Christian.— C.  H. 
Spurocon. 

Grace  and  Glory.  Sermons  for  the  Life  that  Now  Is  and  That  which 
Is  to  Come.  By  Rev.  A.  J.  Gordon,  D.  D.  i2mo,  fine  cloth, 
355  pages,  $1.50, 

Here  we  have  power  without  sensationalism;  calm  thought,  living 
and  earnest,  expressed  in  foi'cil)lo  language;  the  doctrine  orthodox, 
evangelical,  practical.  We  shall  be  surprised  if  these  discourses  are 
not  reprinted  by  an  English  house.— C.  H.  Spurgeon. 

Abundant  Grace.  By  W.  P.  Mackay,  M.  A.,  author  of  Grace  and 
Truth.  With  preface  by  Rev.  J.  H.  Brooks,  D.  D.,  and  brief 
iDiographical  sketch  of  the  late  author.  250  pages,  fine  beveled 
cloth,  $1.00. 

The  Holy  Life.  A  book  for  Christians  seeking  the  "  Rest  of  Faith." 
By  Rev.  Evan  H.  Hopkins.  Fifth  thousand.  i8mo,  115  pp., 
cloth,  beveled  edge,  60  cents. 

CHICAGO:  F.  H.  BEVELL,  US  dt  150  MADISON  ST. 


POPULAR    WORKS    FOR    ALL    CLASSES. 

The  Christian's  Secret  of  a  Happy  Life.  By  Hannah  Whit- 
all  Smith;  auth(?i-  of  "The  Open  Secret."  Revised  edition  from 
entirely  new  plates.  i2mo,  240  pp.,  paper  50  cents;  cloth,  75 
cents  ;  cloth,  gilt,  $1.00. 

A  book  we  unhesitatingly  recommend.  We  have  not  for  years 
read  a  book  with  more  dehg-ht  and  pro&t,— Southwestern  Ou-istian 
Advocate. 

We  are  delig'hted  with  the  book.  It  reaches  the  very  core  of 
Christian  experience.— Baptist  IVeeMy. 

Worthy  of  universal  circulation. — Cliristian  Union. 

The  Open  Secret.  By  Hannah  Whitall  Smith,  author  of  "Chris- 
tian's Secret  of  a  Happy  Life,"  etc.     320  pp.,  cloth,  $1.00. 

That  the  author  of  this  work  has  a  faculty  of  presenting-  the  "Secret 
Things"  that  are  revealed  in  the  Word  of  God  is  apparent  to  all  who 
have  read  the  exceedingly  popular  work  "The  Christian's  Secret  of  a 
Happy  Life,"  and  such  will  not  be  disappointed  in  expecting  to  find 
in  this  new  volume  a  fulless  and  sweetness  in  the  unfolding  of  God's 
Word,  in  its  application  to  the  practicaldaily  duties  of  christian  living. 

Walking  Worthy  of  God.  A  reprint  from  the  works  of  Rev.  John 
Flavell,  with  an  introduction  by  (and  published  at  the  request 
of)  Maj.  D.  \V.  Whittle.  A  valuable  book  for  circulation — an 
incentive  to  Christian  living.     Square,  i6mo,  43  pp.,  15  cents. 

Gems  from  Northfield.  A  Record  of  the  best  thoughts  exchanged 
at  the  Conference  for  Bible  study,  convened  at  Northfield,  by  D. 
L.  Moody.     i2mo,  116  pp.,  cloth,  $1.00. 

The  thoughts  and  expositions  of  Scripture  which  are  presented  in 
this  volume  are  of  rare  practical  \alue.~Herald  aiia  Presbyter. 

Recollections  of  Henry  Moorehouse,  Evangelist.    By  George 
"C.  Needham.     240  pp.,  i5mo,  cloth,  beveled,  fi.oo. 

Mr.  Moorehouse,  the  young  English  evangelist,  was  well-known 
throughout  this  country,  and  the  volume  is  the  most  interesting 
biographical  sketch  of  this  remarkable  man — a  real  inspiration. 

Christians  of  every  name  gathered  about  him;  and  ministers  with 
long  years  of  successful  work,  and  yovnig  converts  just  entering  the 
field  alike  sat  at  his  feet  to  study  the  Word.  *  *  *  i  hope  that  the 
Story  of  his  life  will  lead  many  who  have  not  come  under  his  per- 
sonal influence  to  a  more  thorough  study  of  God's  Vi-ord.— D.L.Moody. 

Plain  Talks  About  the  Theatre.  By  Rev,  Herrick  Johnson, 
D.  D.     Fifth  thousand.     84  pp.,  cloth,  50  cents;  paper,  20  cents. 

Probably  the  modem  theatre  never  received  such  a  raking  fire.  - 
Zion's  HeraM. 

As  crushing  as  a  charge  of  cavalry,  and  as  convincing  as  logic  can 
make  truth.    A  terrific  indictment  of  the  theatre — The  Advance. 

May  Christian's  Dance?  By  Rev.  J.  H.  Brookes,  D.  D.  144pp., 
i6mo.,  cloth,  50  cents;  paper  covers,  25  cents. 

An  able  and  wholesome  consideration  of  the  question  from  a 
Christian  point  of  view.— Zion's  Herald. 

CHICAQO:  F.  U.  BEFELL,  US  &  ISO  MADISON  ST. 
9 


POPULAR  WORKS  FOR  ALL  CLASSES. 

Fred's  Dark  Days.  By  Rose  Hartwick  Thorpe.  A  story  of  hero- 
ism in  boyhood,  written  in  an  attractive  style  by  the  author  of 
"Curfew  Must  Not  Ring  To-night,"  and  "The  Yule  Log."  An 
excellent  book  for  the  young.     139  pp.,  cloth,  75  cents. 

Fifty  Years  and  Beyond;  or,  Old  Age  and  How  to  Enjoy  It.  Com- 
piled by  Rev.  S.  G.  Lathrop.  Twenty-fifth  thousand.  One 
large  i2mo  volume,  of  over  400  pages,  $1.00.  Presentation  edi- 
tion, gilt  edges,  $1.50. 

The  object  of  this  volume  is  to  give  to  that  great  army  who  are 
fast  hastening  toward  the  "great  beyond"  some  practical  hints  and 
helps  as  to  the  best  way  to  make  the  most  of  the  remainder  of  the 
life  that  now  is,  and  to  give  comfort  and  help  as  to  the  life  that  is 
to  come. 

Songs  for  the  Service  of  Prayer.  Compiled  by  R.  S.  Thain, 
assisted  by  A.  E.  Kittredge,  D.  D.,  E.  P.  Goodwin,  D.  D.,  and 
W.  M.  Lawrence,  D.  D.  A  book  specially  adapted  for  use  in 
the  social  meetings  of  the  church.  Cloth,  240  pp.,  60  cents. 
Special  terms  to  churches  for  introduction. 

Reveit's  Record  for  Church  Treasurers.  The  most  convenient 
record  yet  published.  Weekly  envelope  system.  Simple,  prac- 
tical and  systematic.     Bound  in  half  leather,  quarto,  $1.50. 

The  Man  Traps  of  the  City.    By  Rev.  Thomas  E.  Green. 

A  book  of  timely  warnings,  where  sin  and  crime  are  shorn  of 
their  mask.  The  life  of  the  profligate  is  not  presented  in  attrac- 
tive colors,  but  in  such  a  way  as  to  stand  forth  in  its  true  light — a 
thing  to  be  abhorred. 

140  pages,  cloth,  rich  gold  stamp,  75  cents.  Same  in  illumin- 
ated paper, covers,  35  cents. 

Woman's  Ministry,  and  other  Expository  Addresses.  By  Mrs. 
George  C.  Needham.     137  pp.,  i6mo,  cloth,  75  cents. 

The  first  expository  address  gives  character  to  this  book.  It  is 
literally  an  exposition  bearing  on  the  question  of  woman's  relation 
to  preaching  and  teaching. 

Interesting  and  instructive  Readings  for  the  Young.     By 

C.  H.  Jones.  Illustrated.  A  collection,  original  and  selected, 
of  Stories  for  Children  and  Youth.  357  pp.,  carmine  cloth,  rich 
gilt  stamp,  $1.00.  This  collection  is  not  only  entertaining,  but  is 
practically  helpful  and  instructive. 


CHICAGO:  F.  H.  REVELL,  U8  <&  150  MADISON  ST. 
10 


PREMILLENNIAL    WORKS. 

Pre-Wiil!ennial  Essays.  A  series  of  papers  on  prophetical  subjects 
by  eminent  writers.  Edited  by  Nathaniel  West,  D.  D.  Issued 
in  one  large  i2mo  volume  of  500  pages,  $1.50.  Among  the  con- 
tributors to  this  volume  are  are  Rev.  S.  H.  Kellogg,  D.  D.  ;  Rev. 
A.  S.  Gordon,  D.  D.;  Rev.  H.  M.  Parsons,  D.  D.;  Bishop  Nich- 
olson; Rev.  J.  H.  Brookes,  D.  D.;  Dr.  W.  P.  Mackay,  M.  A. 

Those  vr'bo  desire  to  have,  within  the  compass  of  a  sinyle  volume, 
all  that  is  necessary  to  an  intelligent  consideration  of  the  subject, 
will  find  it  here  in  a  very  readable  form.  It  is  certainly  the  ablest 
work  that  has  appeared  on  the  pre-mUlennial  side.— Canada  Presby- 
terian. 

The  best  treatment  of  this  subject  from  the  pre-millennial  side  that 
has  ever  been  published.— T?!c  Standard. 

Are  Pre-NiniennialistS  Right?  or,  Reasons  for  Believing  in  the 
Pre-Millennial  Advent  of  Christ,  with  a  Brief  Review  of  the 
Objections  of  Dr.  Brown  and  others.  By  S.  H.  Kellogg,  D.  D. 
Paper,  i2mo,  84  pp.,  and  cover,  25  cents. 

Nlaranatha;  or,  the  Lord  Cometh.  By  Rev.  J.  H.  Brookes,  D.  D. 
445  pp.;  cloth,  $1.25;  paper,  50  cents. 

Second  Coming  of  Christ.  By  Rev.  J.  H.  Brookes,  D.  D.  Price 
15  cents. 

The  Blessed  Hope;  or.  The  Glorious  Coming  of  the  Lord.  By 
Willis  Lord,  D.  D.  New  and  cheaper  edition.  A  practical 
treatise;  a  volume  well  adapted  to  lead  to  a  more  joyous  Christian 
life.  250  pp.,  cloth,  $1.00.  Cheap  edition,  for  circulation,  paper 
covers,  only  25  cents. 

Second  Coming  of  Christ.  By  George  Muller,  of  Bristol,  Eng. 
A  neat  little  tract  of  32  pages,  suitable  for  circulation.  Per  dozen 
40  cents;  100  copies,  $2.50. 

Jesus  is  Coming.  By  W.  E.  B.  A  most  popular  hand  book.  Six- 
teenth thousand.  Giving  seven  arguments  in  favor  of  the  pre- 
millennial  coming — stating  the  distinction  between  the  Rapture 
and  the  Revelation,  and  between  the  Church  and  the  Kingdom — 
and  containing  a  diagram,  with  explanations.  New,  enlarged 
edition,  160  pp.,  cloth,  50  cents;  paper  covers,  15  cents. 

Twenty  Reasons  for  Believing  that  the  Second  Coming  of  the 
Lord  is  Near.    34  pp.  and  cover,  neat,  15  cents.    Per  dozen,  $1.00. 

Epiphainia.  A  study  in  Prophecy.  By  E.  J.  Edgren,  Professor  of 
Biblical  Interpretation  in  the  Morgan  Park  Theological  Seminary. 
l6mo,  112  pp.,  cloth,  neat,  75  cents.- 

Dr.  Edgren  writes  as  one  who  both  loves  and  reveres  the  Sacred 
Word.  He  has  altogether  made  a  book  creditable  in  a  literary  not 
less  than  in  an  evangehcal  point  of  riew.— Chicago  Standard. 

Waiting  for  the  Morning,  and  Other  Poems.  By  the  author  of 
"Twenty  Reasons  for  Believing  the  Coming  of  the  Lord  is  Near." 
Square  i6mo,  54  pp.,  red  line,  cloth,  50  cts.;  paper  covers,  25  cts. 

The  Second  Coming  of  Christ.  By  D.  L.  Moody.  Revised. 
Forty-second  thousand.     32  pp.  and  cover,  loc.    Per  doz.,  $1.00. 

CHICAGO:  F.  H.  BEVELL,  US  dk  150  MADISON  ST. 
U 


Works  of  D.  L.  Moody. 


Prevailing  Prayer;  What  Hinders  It.  Paper  covers,  30  cents, 
cloth,  60  cents. 

An  earnest  and  solemn  work,  full  of  helpful  hints  on  the  aids 
and  hindrances  to  prevailing  prayer. 

To  The  Work!  To  The  Work!  A  Trumpet  Call.  Exhortations 
to  Christians.     Paper  cover,  30  cents;  cloth,  60  cents. 

This  new  work  by  Mr.  IMoody  is  in  the  line  of  his  most  success- 
ful effort,  that  of  stirring  Christians  to  active,  personal,  aggressive 
work. 

The  Way  to  Cod,  and  How  to  Find  It.  Thirty-fourth  thousand. 
Paper  cover,  30  cents;  cloth,  60  cents. 

An  excellent  manual  for  the  soul-winner  and  the  awakened  sin- 
ner, which  we  trust  will  bo  the  means  of  leading  thousands  to  Chris- 
tian life  and  heaven— Zioji's  Herald. 

Heaven;  its  Hope;  its  Inhabitants;  its  Happiness;  its  Riches;  its 
Reward.  Eighty-fourth  thousand.  Paper  cover,  30  cents;  cloth, 
60  cents. 

While  adapted  to  the  humblest  capacity,  it  will  command  the 
attention  of  the  mature  and  thoughtful.— A'ationa?  Presbyterian. 

Mr.  Moody's  unfaltering-  faith  and  rugged  enthusiasm  are  mani 
fested  on  every  Y)8.ge.—C}\ristian  Advocate. 

Secret  Power;  or  the  Secret  of  Success  in  Christian  Life  and  Work. 
Paper  cover,  30  cents;  cloth,  60  cents. 

A  deeply  earnest  and  helpful  book  on  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
in  the  believer,  inciting  to  more  diligent  effort  and  to  a  more  perfect 
use  of  the  privileges  of  the  "Sons  of  God." 

Twelve  Select  Sermons.  One  hundred  and  thirtieth  thousand. 
Paper  cover,  30  cents;  cloth,  60  cents. 

With  the  effect  of  these  addresses,  when  spoken,  the  whole  land 
is  acquainted,  and  now  that  they  are  printed,  thej-  will  tend  to  keep 
in  force  the  impression  they  have  already  made. — Methodist. 

Daniel*  the  Prophet,  64  pp.,  i6mo.  Paper  cover,  20  cents  ;  cloth, 
flexible,  40  cents. 

The  Full  Assurance  of  Faith.  Some  thoughts  on  Christian  con- 
fidence.    Paper  cover,  15  cents;  cloth,  flexible,  25  cents. 

The  Way  and  the  Word.  Sixtieth  thousand.  Comprising  "Re- 
generation," and  "  How  to  Study  the  Bible."  Cloth,  25  cents; 
paper,  15  cents. 

How  to  Study  the  Bible.  Forty-fifth  thousand.  Cloth,  15  cents; 
paper,  10  cents. 

The  Second  Coming  of  Christ.  Thirty-fourth  thousand.  Paper 
cover,  10  cents. 

Inquiry  Meetings.  By  Mr.  Moody  and  Maj.  Whittle.  Paper  cover 
15  cents. 

Small  Gospel  Booklets.    By  D.  L.  Moody.     12  separate  sermons. 
Published  in  small  square  form,  suitable  for  distribution  or  enclosing 

in  letters.     35  cents  per  dozen,  $2.50  per  hundred.    May  be  had  assorted 

or  of  any  separate  tract.     Sold  only  in  packets. 

Any  of  the  above  sent  postpaid  to  any  address  on  receipt  of  price. 
Special  rates  for  distribution  made  knozunon  application, 

CHICAGO;  F.  H.  REVELL,  U8  (&  150  MABISOy  ST. 


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